Vampire Hearts : Birth By Bite
by Evangel Tepes
Summary: A story I'm writing as a gift to a friend.
1. Chapter 1

Vampire Hearts - Birth By Bite

"Sora, you're such a jerk!" a brunette screamed into a cell phone. "I can't believe you forgot my birthday!" She stamped her foot in the sand, purple skirt rising just a little above her knees with the action. Her white button-up shirt stayed motionless.

"I *hic* don' know wut yer *hic* talkin' 'bout…" the boy replied. Sora had gotten into liquor, mainly beer, at the age of 15 and now, 18 years old, couldn't go a day without it. His girlfriend hated how he was always drunk, and that he always smelled of drink, and tasted exactly like it.

"You're a Heartless bastard, Sora! I'm breaking up with you, now!" she screamed, tears spilling from her eyes and streaking her eyeliner down her face. Kairi slammed the flip-phone shut, just barely glancing at the engraved Keyblade before tossing it into the ocean. The phone was a gift from the Keyblade Master himself before he became a drunkard.

She collapsed onto her butt on the sand and hid her face in her drawn-inward knees so she could cry freely. Sora wasn't the same anymore, and Riku disappeared a long time ago. He took nothing but his shoes, leather pants and skin-tight leather jacket, and a blindfold. He left when she was only 14, leaving not even so much as a note or call for anybody.

The heart-broken girl had nowhere to go, and no one to turn to. That kept running through her head, sobs echoing far into the night. Eventually the tide came; large, crashing waves creating a nocturne to match her sorrow. The poor girl was utterly and despicably all alone…

Meanwhile, in a famous school far away…

"Kaname, congratulations on graduating from Cross Academy!" Headmaster Cross said enthusiastically to the young man. Kaname was as cool as always as he accepted the congratulations.

"Thank you, Headmaster Cross," he replied politely. The two were in his office, away from everyone else who partied like animals.

"So what do you plan on doing now?"

Kaname closed his eyes, thinking about the question deeply. "There's a small island, almost in the middle of nowhere in the sea. I've been wanting to go there for a long time now."

"Why? What's the name?"

"It just seems like a gorgeously peaceful place. I feel compelled to put as much distance between me and this place, as Yuki no longer needs me."

Headmaster Cross sipped from a teacup and, after making a disgusted face, started to spoon in sugar. "What's the name? I'll get you a ticket."

Kaname smiled. "That won't be necessary, Headmaster. I've already made the necessary arrangements. I leave tomorrow." He drank a liquid from a bottle, a red liquid that was moderately thick in itself. "It's a bit poetic, the name. Maybe that's what draws me, that name. Maybe it's just my innate instinct. Maybe I'm just a little hopeful for a new start." He laughed. "Destiny Island."

The older man sat back in his chair, locking his fingers and thinking seriously. "Hmm… I've never heard of that place before." He stirred his tea, adding milk until it was a light brown color. "The name does sound intriguing, I'll give you that."

The vampire smiled. The older man was about to drink his tea but stopped just as the porcelain cup grazed his lips. "What happened between you and Yuki, anyway?" he asked curiously, peering over the rim of the cup and at the vampire. Kaname stopped smiling quickly.

"Headmaster, I would expect that you already knew…"

"Well, I don't," he replied flatly. Kaname closed his eyes, recalling the event in his mind.

It was night, midnight, actually, on a day there were no day or night classes. Kaname and Yuki were the only two on the school grounds - even the Headmaster had left.

"Yuki… let's go back to my dorm. Nobody's there…" Kaname suggested. "I have a gift for you."

The younger girl blushed and timidly accepted. He brought her back to the mansion-like dorm. She was still blushing and embarrassed; not because of the dorm. Besides, she'd been there before. The vampire led her to his room and sat her down on the edge of his bed. Out of the drawer beside, he produced a small box wrapped in blue paper.

"For you…" he said quietly as he sat down beside her and placed the box in her lap. She hesitantly held it before pulling the paper away. There was a small, fuzzy, blue box. She flipped the lid, revealing the treasure inside: a simple, gold ring with a deep-red garnet jewel nestled inside.

"Kaname! I-I can't accept this!" she exclaimed, pushing the box back to him. He picked it up and held her right hand in his as he placed the box back in her left hand.

"I insist, Yuki," he purred silkily. "Please. It's my gift to you for keeping your sanity, even through all this crazy nonsense."

She hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Kaname." After a moment, she noticed a warmth getting closer to her neck, but didn't mind until something wet trailed along her soft, delicious skin. She jerked back in horror and fear. The vampire was about to bite her!

"Kaname!" she shrieked in terror. His fangs had extended a great deal past his lower lip, and there was no shame on his face. No shame, no embarrassment, nothing but hunger.

"Yuki… let me drink you… let's become a part of each other…" he purred, eyes fixed upon hers as he gazed past her physical form. He started to lean in again. Yuki was almost completely hypnotized, falling prey to his influence to such an extent she almost didn't recover. His fangs were just poking into her flesh, not piercing, but just poking her.

"KANAME! NO!" she screamed and pushed him away forcefully. Suddenly her anti-vampire weapon was in her hands. The girl hoped that the weapon would be enough to protect her. The vampire looked hurt and opened his arms sadly.

"Yuki… please… come to me…" he begged softly. She stepped away from him, towards the door.

"Don't touch me, you bastard!" she shrieked. He stood up, slowly walking towards her. She ran for her life, hoping he wouldn't follow. Kaname Kuran, aristocrat vampire, only sat down on the edge of his bed beside where she had been and let his emotions show in his tears.

The next evening, he found Yuki in the bushes on the borders of the school. She didn't notice him at first, but she looked around once to make sure nobody was spying on her.

Then her eyes stopped on Kaname.

"No… stay away… stay away!" she said, voice escalating in volume from mumble to normal. He was as calm as ever.

"I just wanted to give you this… I'm leaving Cross Academy two days from now," he said, and placed the box before her. Before she could say anything, he turned away and left her. She opened the box and found the ring and a folded-up piece of paper. An apology letter. She couldn't stand to look at him after reading it, so ashamed and guilty she was.

The older man DID know all of this, but he wanted to hear Kaname's side of the story. "Well, Kaname?"

"I know you know, Cross!" he shouted, slamming his fists down on the Headmaster's desk and standing up quickly. The other man slid back in his rolling chair in surprise and sheer, temporary terror. The vampire's eyes widened in surprise at what he'd just done and he turned away.

"My… apologies, Headmaster Cross… I'll take my leave now, if it's all the same to you." He started to walk away. "May your pacifist endeavors succeed. I'll continue to support you, away from your school."

"I'll pray you find what you're looking for, Mr. Kuran," Headmaster Cross replied, still in shock. Kaname Kuran returned to the Night Class dorm with a heavy heart and a burdensome conscience.

"Kaname, you look stressed. What's the problem?" Zero asked in an uninterested tone. The aristocrat ignored him and went to his room, packing up his things so he'd be ready for tomorrow. The rest of the day he sulked in his room, letting nobody disturb him. He didn't sleep during the day, didn't roam about during the night. When it was his time to leave, he didn't say anything to anyone. He took his one suitcase and left at the turn of dawn, wearing a long, dirt-brown trench coat, matching slacks, and red-tinted sunglasses. He gave one last look backwards at the large, white building, half-risen sun cast an orange glow over all life and popped an earphone in each ear, listening to Alesana as he began to walk away. Half an hour later he'd arrived at the ocean port his ship was supposed to dock in. Either he was early, or it was late, since the aquatic vessel wasn't there. He sat down on a bench with his back to the sun, humming to himself to provide for some company, anything to keep from just flat-out weeping. Harsh, cold air bit at the little exposed flesh he had, making his skin sting with desire for warmth.

On the shores of Destiny Island, Kairi fell asleep by accident. She woke up, stiff as all hell. Sand was all in her hair, in her clothes, covering the entire left-side of her body… she tried to dust off as much as she could before sighing in defeat and beginning to walk back to her home. A ship, off in the distance, blared its horn loudly to announce its arrival to the only port on the tiny island. She sighed again, knowing nothing would be on it for her. After all, Riku left so long ago… it was unlikely he'd ever return to the boring little island.

The brunette picked up a seashell and lobbed it angrily into the ocean waves. She kicked the sand with each individual step as she walked away, cursing the fate she'd been left with. "Maybe I'll turn into a huge Heartless and wreak havoc on this miserable little sand pile…" she muttered.

Kaname was standing on the ship's deck, one white-gloved hand on the equally white railing as he gazed at the small island before him. The sun still hadn't completely risen, and a storm was coming. 'Perfect timing, then…' he thought with a grim happiness. He really wouldn't be able to wait until night to explore the island. Kaname was excited about the prospect of getting some new blood, fangs slightly extending. The ship docked a little roughly, vibrating ferociously enough to almost knock him off his feet. He ran a hand backwards through his shoulder-length, semi-spiky black hair and picked up his suitcase. His black dress-shoes clicked on the wooden deck with each step he took towards the ramp to get off the ship. With a simple nod to the captain - a body-long scruffy-bearded big guy in a blue coat with white pants - he left the vessel and took the first step of his new life onto the beach sand with tremor-inducing excitement.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a beautiful young girl walking away. To him, she looked like she had spent the night sleeping on the beach. He could smell the depression emitting from her heart, the bittersweet aroma calling to him like barbecue to any redneck American.

"This girl… hmm. Things are already looking interesting…" he murmured aloud with a smirk. His fangs extended in agreement, but he forced them back so he would be able to talk to her without freaking her out. "But, before I start hitting on strangers…" he mumbled, suddenly coming into reality, "I should probably find out where this address leads me…" He pulled a slip of paper from inside one of the coat's outside pockets at the bottom. 'Maybe I can stalk her and she'll lead me to it… or at least go by it,' he thought, taking off his sunglasses and storing them inside his coat. With suitcase in hand, he followed her at least 100 feet behind, using the scent of her sorrow if she left his vision.

Kairi turned back one more time to look at the ship and the sea and saw a strange man in what looked like a trench coat and pants. Then she realized how cold she was and hugged herself tightly. 'Alucard?' she thought with a smirk. 'Nah… oh well.' She did have to admit he seemed pretty hot… from a distance, anyway. She decided not to dwell on the stranger unless she saw him again and walked along the road that ultimately led to the high-school she recently graduated from. On the way were several tangent roads that held their own courses. She took the very first road on the left, walking semi-quickly since she was chilled to the blood. A little while later she glanced back and noticed the stranger following her, now without his glasses on. She could see his reddish-purple eyes glance down occasionally at a small slip of paper in his left hand. Kairi ignored it and kept walking. It was a longer time before she glanced back again, and she saw the stranger again following her. He was a great distance away, but she still felt a little alarm.

On the other hand, she wasn't paying attention to anything in front of her and tripped on a fallen tree branch, hands flying up like an Anime character as she fell. The brunette girl landed flat on her face and lay still for a moment, registering what the hell just happened in her mind. As she started to pick herself up, a white hand hovered a bit from her face.

"Miss, are you alright?" It was the stranger, of course. "Here, let me help you up."

She was hesitant at first, but took his hand in hers. He was warm, warmer than Sora had ever been, warmer than Riku's heart, warmer than the sun itself. She blushed and almost melted, but regained herself and tried to dust herself off.

"Th-Thanks…" she mumbled, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been following you in such a manner," he apologized, bowing low. "I'm Kaname Kuran. I've been trying to find this address, and I figured I could follow someone who knew their way around and I might find it."

Kairi cocked an eyebrow. "It's not your fault. Here, let me see it." She read the words written on the paper. "This is actually beside my house," she said, a small spark of interest glinting in her eyes. "I guess this way I don't have to anticipate who my next neighbor will be, huh?" she joked lightly, smiling and closing her eyes as she cocked her head at him. He gazed at her in awe, blushing.

"Um… yeah. Sure," he said. "Can you take me there?"

She nodded. "Yeah! Follow me!" she replied excitedly. The brunette took the black-haired boy's hand in hers and drug him along until they reached their destination.

Kairi's house was a simple thing, shaped like a box with a pyramid on top. Kaname figured it only had a living room, kitchen, and a bedroom with a small bathroom attached, something that would be easy to pay rent on, or to pay for entirely. His house was of the same size, and he knew what was inside. He had money, he could've gotten the best housing there, but he wanted to start a new life from the ground up.

"Thank you, Miss, uh…" he stumbled for a name that wasn't there.

"Oh, sorry! I'm such an idiot, I forgot to tell you my name! I'm Kairi," she replied, same smile as before. He managed to keep contained this time, bending over to kiss her hand.

"Thank you, Miss Kairi. I greatly appreciate this, more than you'll ever know," he thanked. She nodded, embarrassed.

"You're welcome, Mr. Kuran." She started to walk away, but turned back to him and said, smiling, "Welcome to Destiny Island."  
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Yeah, I'm definitely going to continue this… hell, _**I'M**_ curious as to how this turns out. And I'm the _**WRITER**_. ;-p


	2. Dying For A Taste of Love

Chapter Two: Dying For A Taste

Kaname sat on the worn, purple couch in the small front room of his small house, wearing nothing but a towel loosely wrapped around his waist. The vampire had been on Destiny Island for three days; now, on the fourth, it had decided to start raining hard. He was flipping through the channels on the TV when somebody knocked on the door.

"Come on in," he growled nonchalantly. The door opened wide as a girl struggled to get inside and close her umbrella.

"Hi, Kaname!" she managed to groan cheerily through all of this. Kairi finally closed the contraption, and then the door. Smiling at him, she hung her umbrella on the coat rack nailed to the back of the door, wearing nothing more than her KH2 attire. It was a little tighter now than it had been three years ago - particularly on her chest and her butt - but she didn't really mind. The brunette loved to show off her body, especially to hot guys.

In fact, she'd show a whole lot more of herself for Kaname.

But then she actually noticed his appearance, not really expressing any emotion about it on the outside.

"Just got out of a shower?" she asked, pointing at his wet hair.

"Yeah… and how about you?" he replied with a smirk. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"So what have you been doing?" she asked, dropping down beside him on the two-seat couch.

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen you outside anywhere since we met. I wanna know what you do," she explained brightly. Kaname sighed. 'That's still pretty vague…' he thought.

"I have a night job," he answered after a short, awkward moment. "I work at the Item Shop as a cashier and night security…"

Kairi took her gaze away from his marvelous, albeit slender to the point of anorexic, torso and began watching the TV. "I didn't know that was open yet… shouldn't you be sleeping right now so that you won't be tired later?"

Kaname smiled innocently. "What do you take me for, a… a vampire? Besides, the rain keeps me up." His smile faded as he remembered all the times he'd seen the rain, but wasn't allowed to go out and play in it. He 'was different,' he was always told. He 'wasn't like all those other nasty children.'

Kairi made a disgusted face when Twilight popped up on a channel. "Ew. I hate that series," she said scornfully.

"What?"

"Twilight, blegh. They books, the movies, the insanity, it's just revolting!" She drew in a deep breath. "They all suck! Why do people obsess over them?"

Kaname shook his head. "As if I understand humans…"

She looked at him funnily. "What do you mean, 'humans'?" she asked with confusion. "You are one!"

He looked down at his feet for a moment. "I don't understand _**people**_, then."

There was an odd silence as he continued to flip through the channels.

"Then… what about vampires?" he asked to break the tension so thick it couldn't be cut with a Keyblade.

"What about 'em?" she replied hesitantly.

"What are your thoughts about vampires? Do you think they're real? Do you like them?" he expanded, talking to her like he was talking to a very young child. She leaned away from him, staring at him with concerned eyes.

"They're okay… I guess…" she answered calmly, one eyebrow raised. "Why?"

He shook his head. "Just a curiosity…" He licked his fangs unhappily, wishing they weren't so long - even when they weren't elongated so he could feed. "So, _**why**_ are you here, again?" he asked firmly. She flinched.

"Because I haven't seen you around recently… and I think you're… nice to see…" She blushed. He laughed quietly at her.

"I'm pretty, am I?" he translated. She blushed and stared ahead at the television.

"I bet you're dying to know… just what I taste like…" he said in a low, smooth voice, leaning in towards her during the second half of his seduction. She blushed harder and tried hard not to let herself get caught in his gaze, an eye-to-eye confrontation of her purple eyes locked in the everlasting gaze of his pinkish-red eyes.

"M-Mr. K-K-Kuran, what a-are you…"

"I know you want to know… ever since I first saw you, I've wanted it. I've wanted to know your taste…" He was so close to her he could've licked Kairi's lips… and probably further. 'Not a bad idea… she's not trying to fight me away, either…' he thought.

The brunette glanced up briefly, just for a second, and was immediately ensnared in his gaze. Those hypnotic, pink eyes compelled her to release her inhibitions, her human resistance of her animal instincts. As she closed her eyes and pushed her lips out to his, she blushed lightly from cheek to cheek. Just as they were so close they could feel the warmth radiating from each other's lips, there was a knock at the door.

Kaname's utter displeasure made itself known through a low-pitched growl. The pair of white pants he stole from Cross Academy that lay folded over on the chair-arm was snatched up. Kaname quickly slipped them on under the towel and let the damp cloth fall to the ground.

When he opened the door to the torrential rain outside, there was another youth. His brown hair was soaked, matted down his face, and drooping wetly down to the top of his chest. He, too, was shirtless, wearing only black shorts and those goofy, huge, clown-like shoes that seemed to be the staple of this island's fashion.

"Can I help you?" the vampire asked warily, one eyebrow raised.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out in disgusted shock. The brunette flipped his hair back over the right side of his head so he could see better.

"Kairi… I need - we need to talk." His breath was rotten with alcohol, making Kaname step back so as not to gag on the foul stench. Sora took this as an allowance to enter and began to do so.

"Stay away from me!" she screamed, jumping up from the couch and trying to get as far away from him as proportionate to him getting closer to her. "Creep!"

Kaname's arm shot out perpendicular to his body, barring the other boy from coming in. "Some nerve you have. I haven't allowed your entry here," he said softly.

"Outta the way, skimpy." Sora pushed Kaname's arm out of his way and again began to step forward. "That's MY girlfriend, and YOU have nothing to do with this, so BACK. OFF."

"You and I are nothing now! It's over! O-VER!" she screamed, crossing her hands before her neck and then uncrossing them like extending an X shape.

Kaname placed his right hand on the boy's chest and closed his eyes. With a single shove, he sent Sora stumbling backwards into a puddle of mud.

"That wasn't with even half of my full strength. You'd best leave," Kaname warned, eyes glowing. The rain made it dark enough so that it was almost night, and he had full dominion over all life now. Especially this dirty little human before him.

Sora jumped back up and held out a hand to Kaname like he was going to shake it. A giant key formed from a beam of light, and the younger boy took it in both hands.

"You've got nothing on me, pal. I'm the Keyblade master!" he roared, hair again covering his face. Kaname's hair was starting to matt together, but he just ignored it. Instead, he made a gesture similar to Sora's and summoned a death-scythe carved from the very bones of Lucifer himself.

"You're nothing," he said, standing the scythe on its end, "but a fool."

Sora lunged and thrust the Keyblade at Kaname, aiming for his stomach. The vampire only sidestepped and smacked Sora in the back of the head with the dulled side of the blade. Sora turned quickly and tried to slash horizontally, but Kaname blocked him. For a moment, the two were trapped in each other's guard, but Kaname knocked away Sora's weapon. The Keyblade landed in a puddle of mud about five feet away and splattered the two boys. Kaname, now furious, hit Sora on the chin with his fist and rammed the non-bladed end of the scythe into the Keyblade master's stomach. He first gushed out his breath in a semi-muffled "Hu-wooo" then doubled over, and finally fell flat on his face. Kaname's weapon faded into darkness and the vampire returned to his house.

Once inside, he shook his wet head, flinging water from his hair onto everything inside. His bare torso glistened with water that he dabbed at with the towel that was laying on the floor from earlier.

"I don't wanna know," he said to Kairi, knowing she was thinking he wanted to know. She hung her head and bit the bottom of her lip.

"I'm sorry about all that… he's Sora. My ex," she explained anyway, feeling guilty.

"Why sorry? If that makes you feel guilty or whatever, then I didn't do it for you." He briskly rubbed the towel over his head. "I just can't stand rude jerks like him." He looked back out the door, watching Sora limp away. Then he shut the door and turned down the lights so it was just a little darker in this room. Kairi, who had been sitting on the couch with her knees together, hands folded upon them, stood up and walked over to Kaname.

"Then… what about you?" she asked, gazing up into his eyes. Their bodies were about a foot away from each other, and she was slowly closing the distance.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you a jerk?"

"I wouldn't think so…"

Now there was about just an inch between them. She laid a hand upon his chest and looked up into his eyes, putting on an air of pitifully cute sadness. "Then… would you know how to treat me right?" Now their bodies were pressed together. He could feel her warmth, smell her scent… he could hear her blood as it passed through her veins. He brought his cold hand up and rest it on the back of her head as he cradled her back, looking into her eyes confidently as he drew closer to her. She closed her eyes and again stuck her lips out, this time connecting with his without interruption. After a second, her hands slowly slid up to conjoin on the back of his neck as his arms coiled around her waist and pressed her tightly against himself. They broke, gazed at each other, and kissed again, more slowly than the first time.

Kairi gasped just a little when he first entered her mouth, but moaned gently as they kissed. Indeed, it was killing her to know what he tasted like, and now she did know exactly what he tasted like. To her, he was the sweetest thing she'd ever tasted, sweeter than any fruit or candy she'd ever had. She felt awkwardly safe in his arms, like only death could rip her from his grasp, like nothing would ever be able to harm her again.

Nothing, that is, except for herself. Kairi hadn't told anyone, so nobody knew that she secretly cut herself. After being neglected by her boyfriend - the one man she thought would never hurt her - and the loss of her parents at about the same time Sora started to drink, and the sudden disappearance of Riku, she had feelings she couldn't convey to anybody through any means she tried. She couldn't write in a journal, she couldn't talk anything out with her friends - especially not Sora - and she couldn't just try to work out her stress through any physical means that weren't self-harmful. So, she cut herself. Every night or two she'd take a small kitchen knife, press it against the tender bottom-side of her wrist, and slash. The blood wouldn't just pour out, but instead gathered slowly like she'd only been scratched, and then trickled down her hand or up her arm. She usually held the wound in the sink under the coldest the water would get for a moment once it stopped bleeding, or if she cut too deeply and it bled excessively.

Even now, she was injured. She thought she discretely pulled her wristband back down without Kaname noticing but his lips twitched. She knew he noticed, without a doubt.

Kaname stepped half-a-step back and held her right arm up. He gently tugged the black-and-white-striped circlet off her arm completely and turned over her wrist, looking at the gashes concernedly.

"These aren't healing correctly," he said solemnly, tracing his finger along each one individually. "They're red and puffy. You haven't been treating them properly after you cut, have you?"

She tried to jerk her hand away but he held on tightly. The most she really did was just shake a little. He looked up into her face, her face full of shame, before he looked back down and kissed each one gently, like he was kissing a butterfly, or like he was a kissing butterfly. She closed her eyes and winced, but knew he wouldn't hurt her. She blushed again; this time it was a real blush, a sincere blush. He smiled and hugged her softly, much too loosely. She clutched his back and moved into him, and he responded by hugging her much more tightly until she sighed contentedly.

"Don't do that anymore," he whispered in her ear. "Don't make me worry about you doing… that." He shuddered a tiny bit and released her, then handed back to her the wristband. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

She nodded and gulped. "Yeah," she said, voice trying not to break up. This was a sentimental time for her, and finally, someone truly cared about her and her well-being. She could tell in the way Kaname smiled at her that her search for happiness and the end of her pain was over. The brunette waved goodbye to him as she went out the door, not bothering to open her umbrella. The rain had, more or less, stopped.

Kaname watched her go, fangs throbbing with hunger. "One more night…" he growled sinisterly. "One more night and you'll be mine."


	3. Vampire Night

Chapter 3: Vampire Night

Kairi sat under a palm tree in the shade of the evening sun, on a grassy cliff that overlooked the beach shore, waiting. When she'd woken up that morning and prepared to leave to buy some groceries she found that someone had slipped a note under the door. It was a piece of 8" x 11.5" yellow notebook paper folded twice in half. The unfolded paper said:

"Come by the shore and wait for me under the tree with a star carved on the trunk."

There wasn't anything else written. She couldn't fairly say it was anybody but Kaname. After all, Sora had his ass handed to him last night, and Riku…

She sat under the tree, watching the sun gently glow as it slowly sank into the sea. To her, the ocean always looked like it stretched on, endlessly trapping her on this island as if she'd committed some crime against divinity and was now being punished as a human. She sighed, having realized long ago that there wasn't any specified time on the note and she may have missed whoever it was. A salty breeze engulfed her whole body, the chilled air forcing her to shudder and hug herself for warmth. A heavy blanket fell around her shoulders and draped down over the rest of her body. She was wearing nothing more than a white, sleeveless t-shirt and a purple mini-skirt.

"You'll catch your death of cold like that…" Kaname softly scolded as he set down another blanket beside her. On top of it was another blanket that was pulled up and tied at the corners. Its sides bulged, apparently full of something. He undid the top knot and food spilled out the open side: sandwiches, bags of chips and candies, what have you. There were a few bottles filled with water and several pouches of powder to mix in and make drinks.

"Sorry I'm late. It was hell trying to find all this stuff and keep Sora at bay," Kaname apologized and smiled. She almost melted.

"No, you're alright…" she mumbled.

"So how was your day?"

"I-I stayed under this tree all day… waiting for whoever dropped that note…" she replied, again mumbling. He took notice of this and knelt down in front of her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, peering into her eyes. "You're not your usual, bubbly self…"

She quickly averted her gaze. "I'm just cold… I'll be okay…" she said, trying to throw more volume into her voice. He placed his left hand on her forehead, his right hand staying on his knee.

"You feel kinda feverish…" he said with concern. His death-cold hands did nothing to cool her blush at all.

"I'm just… really warm…" she lied, shaking his hand off of her head. He sat back and crossed his arms.

"Okay then…" He gazed at her for a moment. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to stay all day here… you haven't eaten all day, have you?"

She shook her head and felt the pang of hunger in her stomach. "Then let's eat," he said. "I got all this, thinking of how to plan a romantic dinner."

She blushed and grabbed a sandwich, looking at it hesitantly before asking what was in it.

"Peanut Butter and Jelly," he replied with a smile. He pointed to two little stars in the bottom corner of the baggy. "One star is a bologna sandwich with mayonnaise, two stars is PB and J, three stars is… ham and cheese, I think…" he said, scrunching his brow. "Wow. I can't believe I forgot." He reached over and pulled a sandwich out of a three-star bag and bit into it. For a moment, Kairi thought she saw vampire fangs in Kaname's mouth, long fangs, long, sharp, white fangs. "Yeah, ham and cheese," he said, mouth slightly full and muffling him.

She giggled nervously at him. 'Is that why he was freaking out about the vampire thing?' she thought. 'Is he a vampire fanatic or something?'

The vampire noticed that she must have seen something… peculiar. 'Oh no! Did she see my fangs?'

"Kaname, will you smile for me?" she asked, batting her eyes at him. Quickly he forced his fangs to sink back into his mouth, looking like they were normal., and smiled at her. She leaned in close, looking at his teeth.

'I thought… I could've swore they were longer than normal…' she thought, feeling some kind of disappointment. When she sat back, the vampire shoved all the food into two piles, looking for something apparently buried underneath.

"Come on, where is that stupid…" he muttered under his breath. Then he found it: a tiny radio no larger than somebody's fist, and three wine-red candles. The radio, he turned on, but the candles he left laying. After a moment, he found a channel that played slow, romantic, lover's songs.

Kairi continued to stare into the sun. It was dim enough to be able to gaze into it without her eyes hurting. Kaname put his arm around her shoulders and let his hand fall upon the upper part of her right arm. She leaned over to him and placed her head squarely where his chest and shoulder merged, making him coil his arm tighter around her. The skies above were changing from the orange setting sun's glow to the inky purple of night, and the first star was weakly shining, comparable for now only to the sun. She wanted to ask the vampire so many things, but couldn't ever find the right way to word herself. She drew her legs and arms in closer to her body, trying to conserve room and heat herself better. Kaname moved the blanket to completely cover her body and she relaxed her body back.

"Kaname?" she asked, turning her head up to him. He stared down at her, a gentle flame burning behind his pink eyes.

"Yes… Kairi?" he asked. She blushed and started to rise up to his level. "Will you… um…" A wide length of her hair fell into her face. Kaname brushed the dark-reddish brown strands to the side and tucked them behind her ear. He took her hand and made her stand up with her arms around his neck and his around her middle, hands resting on the back of her waist. She leaned up for a kiss, and got exactly what she wanted. His soft, tender lips met with hers and they stayed like that for a moment, each trying to suck out the other's soul. They broke, gazing into each other's eyes, before coming back together. She made the first move, slipping her tongue past his lips before he could think about doing the same to her. She gasped softly when he tightened his hug, completely cutting off any tiny distance between their bodies now.

Kairi felt so warm to Kaname. Warm, and soft, like… like the sun. To him, there was nothing else in the world now, nothing else at this moment in time. There was only he, the now-rising moon, and her. This coupling, itself, was like sun and moon, but without the forbidden desires between. He slowly ran his hand up and down the middle of her back. She gasped, feeling a little ticklish. Then his hand softly slid under her shirt and up her back. The cold skin along her warm skin made her want to cringe and shrink away, but she forced herself to enjoy it.

Now they began to kiss as though it was their last moment together, as if death was about to spirit each other away to entirely opposite celestial existences. She stood on tiptoe, kissing him, passionately running a hand through his dark-brown hair that hung down to the tops of his shoulders. She craved him. She desired him. She was throwing away all her restraints one by one, wanting nothing more than to entirely enjoy this. She hadn't gone this far with Sora, even before he started drinking, but now she felt like someone really cared for her and needed her.

And she definitely cared for and needed Kaname.

The vampire kissed her and forgot that his fangs would gradually extend. She didn't seem to notice at first, but her brow scrunched up and she started to moan and push him away. She finally succeeded in separating them and held open his mouth.

"I knew it! You ARE a vampire!" she exclaimed in triumph, then jumped back in horror. "OH SHIT! YOU'RE A VAMPIRE!"

"Now, calm down, please!" he said quickly, throwing his hands up. "Can we talk about this?"

She started to back away and ran into the tree. "Whatever you want, I'll do it! I'm sorry for whatever bad I've done! I'll get back with Sora! Anything! Just don't hurt me!" Her eyes were full of fear. Kaname saw that raw emotion and had a sudden change of heart towards her. Before, she was just his prey. But now… seeing her scared like that made him want to protect her from whatever she feared. He wanted… to be there for her. He… maybe… loved her…

"I'm sorry…" he said, backing away. He hung his head in shame. "I didn't mean for you to find out like this…"

"What do you mean, "like this"? Why didn't you say something earlier? Like, maybe, when I started to like you!"

"You would've dismissed me as a psycho."

"So?"

He turned to the edge of the cliff. "I'll drown the moment my body is surrounded by water." He looked back at her. "If you want, I'll kill myself to make up for this."

"You… you're joking. You wouldn't actually…"

He stepped forward, now entirely on the edge. "I would. I want to protect you from the things that scare you. I'll eliminate myself to that end, if I have to."

She wanted so desperately to believe him. She wanted to run up and hug him, to pull him away from the drop, to kiss him and make him hold her in his arms. But she was also afraid. She was afraid he'd bite her and drink her to death. She was afraid that there was more to vampires than just the stories.

Kaname turned his head back to face the direction opposite the rising moon and drew in a deep breath. He raised his foot, prepared to step off, and somebody grabbed him from behind. Kairi tightly wrapped her arms around his waist, starting to cry into his back and struggling to walk backwards, dragging him stiffly along. "No! I… won't let you kill yourself…" she spoke, in descending volume.

Kaname could still tell she was afraid. He knocked Kairi's arms from his body and turned with a slow grace to face her. "Why?" he asked softly, eyes glimmering like rubies under sunlight. She looked up into his eye, determined to stay herself, to avoid hypnotism.

"Because… I need you, I…" She looked down and her hair fell into her face. "Love you…"

Kaname drank this in like a delicious wine and held her in a loose embrace. "There there, now, hush…" he whispered, rubbing her back. She started to sob a little. "Don't cry… I'll live, as long as that is your wish."

Kairi clutched his back and buried her face in his chest. "Please stop talking about dying!" she cried, voice breaking as she heaved with the fear of sorrow to eventually come. He was stunned, purely taken aback.

"I'm sorry…" He tightened his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. This embrace lasted forever, with her enhancing it by pulling him in closer. There was no space between them as they kissed again. His hand again trailed up the back of her shirt as he slowly progressed from kissing her lips, to her cheek, and then to nibbling on her neck. She gasped as his fangs sank in, and blushed when he started to toy with her bra hook.

Kaname sucked hungrily from her neck, trying to draw out as much of her crimson as he could. Her cheeks grew feverishly hot, and she clutched him tightly. He quickly learned how to adjust every aspect of himself and his bite through each reaction she gave him; each sigh, or pant, or gasp, or moan, or very vocal gasp, how she touched him, how she whispered his name.

He unhooked her bra and started to pull her shirt up. The bottom of the cloth rolled up to catch on his chin, making him reluctantly let go of her neck. The shirt rose above her head. She rose her arms straight up, and off the shirt came. It fell to the grass underneath their bare feet. Kaname stepped around her, behind her, and pushed her supportive clothing away. The vampire's left hand grazed her entire left breast, while he pinched, pulled, and teased the stiffening nipple of her right with his right. She moved and pushed her ass onto his swelling member through his cloth, giving him a kind of standing lap dance as she rocked back and forth, swaying from side to side, and rubbing against him.

Kaname purred as he bit into her neck again,. Kairi gave a short shout of intense pleasure because he pinched her too hard and bit down way to hard. Now his right hand took the place of his left as the latter slowly slid down her body. She begged for him, in moans, reaching behind to start lifting up his shirt. He craftily undid the button of her skirt and slipped his hand inside her skirt, completely ignoring her underwear as his hand slipped between her legs, into the intense heat that only grew warmer every moment, every second.

Her hands brushed against his steely-hard abs, but she was unable to raise his shirt. She was about to go off before the main event, so she made him pull his hand out and stop biting her so she could turn around and undress him properly. His shirt was dropped behind carelessly.

Kairi ran her hands over his cold, smooth chest, eyeing him like a delicious candy. She pushed him down gently and got on top, kissing as each hastily removed the other's pants or skirt. Everything finally off, she ground temptingly against his tiff member. He pushed her back and caught her as he put her on bottom. He leaned down to her neck and again drank, the head of his unit brushing against her love-button and making both shudder. He slowly, gently, pushed inside her once as far as he could and stayed to let her tightness adjust to his large member. She moaned softly as she quivered and pulsed around him. Her blood began to taste warmer, sweetened by adrenaline and the pleasure she was feeling.

Once she'd been able to control herself and adjusted to him, she commanded him to continue. She wrapped her legs around his waist tightly as he thrust inside her. Kairi moaned when he pushed inside and cried out when he pulled out.

"Harder…" she moaned constantly, slowly increasing in volume. He obeyed, casing to drink from her and kissing her deeply instead. He gripped her ass, thrusting into Kairi as hard as she demanded.

"Unh… ah… yeah…" she moaned after they broke from the kiss. He fell back and pulled her on top of his lap, still piercing her until she began to bob up and down slowly. She pushed him onto his back and leaned over him, her hair tickling his face. A few drops of her blood splattered on his chest and she slowly licked it away, kissing his chest seductively. She gazed into his eyes and saw exactly what he wanted for her to do.

Kaname hoped she could tell what he wanted of her. He tried like hell to project his thoughts and grinned sadistically when she nuzzled the left side of his neck gently. He breathed sharply and dug his nails into her back when she sank her dull, non-vampiric teeth into his cold, milky-white flesh, slurping his blood. Kaname could tell that she was about to fall of the edge of restraint's cliff and he knew he was about to finish, too.

"Kairi, I'm… about to…"

"Do it! Inside me, baby!" she screamed, letting go of his neck for a moment. Then she bit down again and squealed as she came, tightly quivering around his member. He gave a shout and a gasp as he let himself go, filling her inside.

She collapsed onto him, limp like a rag-doll. He rolled over to put them on their sides, clutching each other lovingly. The vampire quickly covered them with their clothes like a makeshift blanket. She stared into his eyes drowsily, wondering if she were gazing into someone's eyes or at some stars in the skies.

She leaned in to him, taking in the sweet scent of his skin as she at last rest her head on his chest. He smelled something like… oranges and roses mixed together. Kinda.

"I love you…" he purred, stroking the back of her head lovingly. Her hair was soft and silky like the down feather of a baby bird and smelled like pure, sweet, fresh vanilla blossoms.

"Mmm… I love you too…" she murmured sleepily into his chest. Together they slept under only the blanket of the night's sky, stars flickering comfortingly as the moon glowed a white light that lulled both man and woman to sleep at the same time.

Sora walked by from a long distance and looked over. He saw what he, in a completely drunk state, wished least to see in all of his life: Kairi with another man. At first his heart was full of pure hatred, but he managed to sullen himself out. Turning his head away, his hair fell down around his shoulders and he decided something very important to himself.

"I won't bother them. I'll… I'll just let them be. If that's what she wants, I won't stop her from listening to her heart." And with that, he began to walk away with his hands in his pockets, quietly humming to himself.

Kaname woke up some time after, and slowly stroked the back of her soft-haired head. His fangs suddenly extended without warning and cut the top of his bottom lip in the two places his fangs grazed against. He stared down at Kairi's head like he was looking at her soul itself.

"Kairi… my dear…" he whispered. The index finger of her right hand, which lay on his chest, twitched and her head nuzzled against his chest.

"Mmm… Kaname…" she muttered in her sleep. He kissed the top of her head lovingly.

"Bare your throat to me…" he commanded in his soft, seductive, silky voice. Kairi, still asleep, moved as he commanded her to. She rose herself up so that the left side of her neck was completely open to him. He kissed her neck softly, then licked, then blew his cold breath along the damp stripe. She shuddered.

"Bi… Bite me…" she murmured. He wasn't sure if she really was asleep or not at this point, but stopped really caring. He pricked her neck, a bead of blood oozing out at his fang-tips. He softly kissed both new punctures, sucking gently to draw out more scarlet. Her blood was sweeter in her sleep. Maybe she was having sweet, happy dreams. She clutched him tighter and gasped. Then Kairi moaned like she were eating something delicious, or having deliciously hot sex.

He drank slowly from her, letting her hear him slurp away her delicious liquid. She continued to moan and gasp, gripping his body wherever her hands lay. He'd had his fill after only a few seconds and commanded her to go back like she was.

Then both slept well, neither waking again until the sun rose.


	4. Return of the King

A chilling breeze blew, washing Kaname's pale body in cold. He shivered, but refused to show weakness by pulling the front of his tan trench coat together to keep himself from feeling the wind along his upper torso. He smiled, tips of his fangs glistening as they slipped out between his lips and curved downward. Kairi stood beside him, both standing on a cliff overlooking the sea. Sora was a little way off, also waiting for something.

As it turned out, Sora had made his peace with Kairi and Kaname a while back. Kaname and Sora agreed to be friends so long as the Keyblade master never went after Kairi again, like he did before. Kairi and Sora were just friends.

Kairi, again dressed in her KH1 attire (mostly because it mostly fits her in a very sexy way… ;-p) but still in her KH2 body, sat down and dangled her feet over the edge of the cliff. Sora moved closer to the group and playfully punched Kaname on the left shoulder, prompting the vampire to summon his scythe and smile darkly back at the boy who was holding the Keyblade in his right hand. Kairi sighed and shook her head as the two began to wail on each other like one was a drum, the other a drummer. She knew they wouldn't try to kill each other… yet, anyway. She also knew why they were all waiting on that cliff - actually, she was the only one who knew, since she had yet to tell either of the boys.

A few days ago, she'd received an envelope. On it, there was only her name and address; no return address or even the name of the sender. Inside was a piece of paper almost as big as an index card. The message written on it was conveyed through red ink. The writing was untidy and randomly slanted if not straight, and otherwise was just entirely like a Shadow's tracks on paper.

"3 days. Finally coming home. Wait for me by the tree."

Even still there was no name… but Kairi could never forget that handwriting. "The tree…" she'd said after reading the note a few more times. The only tree she knew of that differed from any of the others on Destiny Island was… One night she and someone had gone up to the cliff. Sora had really hurt her that night. (To be honest, it really was an accident… this happened before Sora's drunken asshole-ishness.)

"I can't stand it!" Kairi wailed, sobbing hysterically into the boy's yellow-shirt-covered chest. "I can't believe he didn't… he didn't…" she began wailing again. He held her tight, rubbing her back. He knew that it wasn't done on purpose and tried to explain that to Kairi, but she wouldn't listen to him. They spent more time up there, her and the boy, and stayed until the sun began rising. When they decided to part, the boy carved something into the trunk of the tree, something that made her blush and shiver to her core. Then the boy left the island in the middle of the night half a year later. Kairi, in a fit of hysteria and loneliness, ran up to the tree and furiously scratched out what the boy had carved. Afterwards there was a band about five inches vertically all around the tree where she had pretty much just torn off the bark.

That was three years ago. She always wondered - every day, in fact - why he left. Today, she hoped, she would finally get an answer. The sudden clang of Scythe on Keyblade tore her from her thoughts, bringing her back to the reality that seemed so distant just moments ago. Kaname and Sora were beginning to draw blood from each other with their attacks. Kairi flung herself between the two, hoping they'd stop instead of risking hurting her. "Will you two freaking STOP IT!"

As expected, both immediately stopped. Sora panted heavily, a cut bleeding just a step below "I'ma bleed to death" on his left cheek and a few cuts through the new rips in his clothes, marks on his chest and arms and one on his left shin. Kaname's bottom lip was bleeding at the left corner, there was a long bruise along his neck, his left shoulder was dislocated if not just broken, and there was a long slash from his right shoulder to his left hip along his torso.

"Oh come on, it's not like we're really hurting each other," whined Sora, wiping away the blood on his cheek and wincing painfully as his fingers grazed the wound. He turned around and clasped his hands on the hilt of his weapon with the blade pointed down, casting Cura on himself and Kaname.

"Hmph." Kaname stuck his scythe in the ground with the blade at the top of the staff and turned around, facing the opposite direction with his arms crossed. "Whatever." The wounds on his body were already slowly healing.

Kairi sighed and sat back down on the edge of the cliff. Kaname sat down beside her with his left arm hung loosely around her shoulders, the hand trailing her upper arm and shoulder. "So, baby, what are we sitting here waiting for?"

Kairi smiled. "I'm not sure yet. Maybe a ship. Maybe a plane. Who knows?" She continued to smile enigmatically. Kaname scowled a moment.

"Fine." He turned his attention to the sea. Sora sat cross-legged a little distance away - not too far, more or less where he could hear them if they were whispering.

"Is it Riku we're waiting for?" he asked. Kairi froze for a moment.

"I don't know. Is it?" she replied smartly. He shook his head, feeling frustrated, and re-focused on healing himself. Kairi stared into the sunset, growing slightly nervous. Where the hell was… whoever it was? Come to think of it, they didn't mention WHEN on that third day she should meet them. Maybe they weren't appearing because of Sora and Kaname. Maybe-

"Well hello, stranger…" someone said from behind her. She turned and saw someone dressed in a long, midnight-black leather trench coat with the front zipped up and the hood over his head, shadowing out the upper half of his face. The tail of the coat ended just above the backs of his knees and was split up the middle from the bottom up to his waist. He wore black pants and even darker boots.

"Are you… talking to me?" she asked, pointing to herself. The unknown person shook his head.

"No, Kairi. I'm talking to him," he replied, pointing at Kaname. The vampire scoffed at the new boy.

"It's common manners to introduce one's self before asking another's name," he replied bluntly. Sora stood up, Keyblade in hand.

"I don't recognize this person…" he said in reference to the one in the hood. Kaname stood up and summoned his scythe. The half-faced one smiled sadly and reached his hand up to the sky, summoning his own weapon: a sword, shaped like a dragon's wing. At the end was a small, bright-white angel's wing.

"If you wanna fight, that's fine. I'm much stronger than I used to be… and I'm especially eager to test my new power out on you, Sora." His hand lowered back to his waist, weapon pointed at the brunette.

"Kairi, stay back…" warned Kaname. "I can sense some strong darkness coming from this guy."

The hood quivered a little in the ocean breeze, and a few silver strands of hair from the person's bangs fell out. Kairi barely noticed and almost paid little interest to it, but a thought began simmering in the back of her mind, a thought that she might actually kinda sorta know who that was.

"Kaname, Sora, don't beat him down too bad. I wanna see who this is…" she replied emptily. She wasn't really thinking about what was happening, but who the other person was.

Kaname didn't pay attention to her words. He was more focused on the battle. How dare someone pose a threat to Kairi?

Sora, too, was paying little attention to Kairi, or her vampiric boyfriend. Those silver strands caught his eye, and the outfit was beginning to look familiar, along with the sword the leather-clad boy was wielding.

"Who… are you?" Sora asked. The boy smiled.

"You'll know, after we fight, EXACTLY who I am, Sora."

The brunette was a little alarmed, but readied his Keyblade. Kaname leaned his scythe against his shoulder and cracked his knuckles, then took up his weapon again. The vampire was the first to make a move, lunging at the boy in the trench coat with a wide horizontal slash. It cut the boy's body just barely, creating an opening in the chest of the jacket and revealing a very light scratch. The boy ran a hand along the wound and laughed, purely amused.

Sora now attacked, attempting a Zantetsuken move to break the stranger's sword. The winged wing-blade stopped the Zantetsuken attack entirely, leaving the two boys so close together their noses almost touched. Sora growled through his gritted teeth; the other boy just smirked calmly.

"Come on, Sora, I know you can do better than this," he jeered and pushed the Keyblade master away. Kaname attacked again, only to have his weapon parried. The boy in the trench coat laughed quietly, holding his hand to his hood where the three friends suspected his eyes were.

"This is getting nowhere…" he said at last. His hand fell back down and his face straightened. "I'll give you all hints." He turned to Kairi. "Kairi, why did you scratch out what I carved on the tree?" He turned to Sora. "Remember the raft? You left me to do all the work, you slacker." Then he turned to Kaname. "And you…" Then he stopped and thought. "We haven't met… have we?"

Kaname shook his head. "No. Trust me, we haven't."

The boy smiled. "Fair enough."

"Who are you, then?" the vampire retorted.

"Who am I?" The smile vanished and he turned away so that neither of them could see his face. "You could say… I'm the biggest nobody of all."

Sora's head perked up. "The biggest nobody of all…?"

Kairi closed her eyes, thinking. 'That line does sound familiar…'

"Hmph." Kaname smirked and closed his eyes. "Trying to be the cool guy of the island, huh?" His eyes opened quickly, irises flashing a bright flaming purple.

"Nobody…" the boy said, unzipping his jacket. When the zipper reached the tear in the jacket, it just slipped off the teeth, and the boy tore the zipped-together teeth apart so that the jacket's front was completely open. He was wearing a yellow shirt with two crossed-over belts from waist to shoulder. He repeated the word again, voice hollow with sadness and empty. A hand reached up and hooked onto the lip of the hood. Then it dropped, leaving the shadow over his face. "Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Sora and Kairi were starting to recognize all this from the past. Kaname nodded.

"I was a student… at a particular academy. The nature of the heart was something we studied before Professor Ansem went missing. Left in his room were several notebooks that detailed Heartless, Nobodies, and something called "Kingdom Hearts." There's no way you can be a true Nobody, though… I can smell the emotions within you," Kaname replied.

The boy smiled. "You're a vampire, aren't you?"

Kaname parted his lips a little, showing his gleaming fangs. The boy smiled and his gloved hand rose back up. It lingered on the lip of the hood again, and gradually pulled it back. Kairi's eyes widened and Sora's mouth gaped when they saw the boy's face.

The boy's long, silver bangs flowed into his face and down to the bottom of his neck. He pushed the right side of his bangs behind his ear, revealing a jade-green eye full of a kind of warmth, a sad, beautiful warmth that begged to be felt by someone other than himself. The rest of his hair had grown long, down to the middle of his back. It was somewhat unevenly cut, as if he had just raggedly lopped it off now and then. His hair wasn't very noticeably bad in the back. It looked somewhat like the hair of a particular silver-haired One-Winged Angel…

He held out a hand to the vampire. "My name is Riku."

Kaname stared at it for a moment. Then he grasped it firmly with his pale, dead-cold hand. "Kaname Kuran."

Riku smiled. "Ah yes, that's why you seem familiar." He stepped in closer and lowered his voice so Kairi and Sora wouldn't hear. "I was at Cross Academy for a little while, studying darkness and Heartless. Your name came up frequently when I got my private lessons from Professor Ansem and Headmaster Cross."

He stepped back. Kaname smiled curiously at him. "I'm sorry. I don't think your name ever came up when I spoke with them."

"I was a night-class student, even though I wasn't a vampire, so it was kinda prohibited to talk about me with anyone not close to Cross."

Kaname nodded. "Makes sense." He finally drew his hand back. "Nice to meet you. I think your friends…" he peered over the boy's shoulder, "are eager to see you."

Riku nodded and turned around to face Sora first. The brunette appeared angry. "So you've finally come back, huh?"

Riku smiled softly. "Yeah. So what's new?"

Sora glared at him blankly for a moment. Then he charged Riku with another Zantetsuken. "You prick!"

Riku sidestepped outside the range of the attack. Kaname was forced to quickly block with his scythe to avoid taking some serious damage. Both weapons shattered with the abrupt, swift, fully-destructive force, and both fighters were knocked back a nice distance. Kairi ran to Kaname's aid.

"Now that that's out of the way…" Riku mumbled, walking over to Sora and helping him up. "How's everything been without me?"

Sora brushed himself off and noticed a rip in the sleeve of his shirt. "Humph…" Then he smiled without his own permission. "It's been as boring and slow as ever. It's nice you're back."

Riku laughed. "Yeah. Guess that means you're gonna start slacking off again, right?"

Sora punched him in the arm half-angrily and turned away. Riku just laughed more, his tone descending as he approached Kairi. She grew quiet and turned her head down, gaze down-ward cast from him and towards Kaname.

"Kairi…" he said quietly. She tried to smile with conviction, but the result was still quite meek.

"Hey…" she replied. He opened his arms for a hug but she stepped back, and Kaname stepped in between them. Riku stared in confusion for a moment until the reality hit him.

"Ohhhhhhh, I get it…" he said slowly. "You two are going out, huh?" He grinned. "That's cool… yeah, that's good."

Kairi looked away guiltily. "It's good… to see you, Riku…" she said quietly.

"Huh? Why so gloomy? Cheer up, emo kid." He yawned. "Sorry I attacked you guys earlier. At least nobody got hurt, right? Umm…" he scratched his chin. "Listen guys, I have to go. I'm sure my old house isn't in the best of shape… and I know it's just waiting for me."

'But… wait… I hit him…' Kaname thought.

Kairi nodded nervously, still looking away. "Bye."

Sora looked at Kairi for a moment, then to Kaname, then back to Riku. "Uh, hey Riku? Can I come too?"

"Sure, why not?"

The two left, talking like old friends. Kaname watched until they disappeared, then turned his attention to his girlfriend. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, love…"

"No, something is wrong with you. You can't lie to me. What is troubling you?"

She shook her head again and didn't say anything. He grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look into his eyes. The vampire saw she was crying even though she shut her eyes tightly, trying to hold the liquid sorrow in. He sighed, feeling like a jackass.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, slowly drawing her into a loose hug. "I should've realized sooner. You… had feelings for him before you met me, right?"

She nodded and hugged him hard enough to squeeze the breath out of him and cried mutely into his shoulder. He returned the strength of her hug until just before he thought it would hurt her. "I love you, Kairi."

The strawberry-brunette clawed into his back and bit his shoulder, trying to hold back her loud sobs. "I'm… sorry…" she choked, only for him to shush her softly.

"Kairi, what do you have to be sorry for?"

"Be…cause… Riku… you…"

"Shush, Kairi. I'm not upset and I'm not hurt." He let one hand trail up her back and rub the back of her head. "I understand a lot better than you think I do, my love."

She gradually stopped sobbing and shedding tears as the sun set further and further under the sea. It was the youth of the night, and the moon glowed with an orange-red light that Kaname found so lovely, so beautiful, it gave him the urge to bite.

"I love you, Kaname…" Kairi whispered, breaking the silence. He kissed her cheek just before his fangs extended without him wanting them to.

"I love you too, Kairi."

3 hours before, with Riku and Sora…

"So Sora…" Riku started awkwardly, "what happened between you and Kairi? Weren't you two very close when I left?"

Sora was nervous in his reply. "I, uh… I started drinking, and, uh… shit went downhill from there."

Riku sighed. "Didn't I tell you that stuff would mess you up?"

Sora nodded, knowing he couldn't make a rebuttal. "Yyyyeah… when her and I broke up, I stopped drinking. Seven months straight since then."

"A bit late, huh?" Riku kicked a seashell and pushed the right side of his bangs back behind his ear.

Sora laughed a little awkwardly. "Yeah… better late than never, huh? It coulda' been worse…"

Riku nodded. "You need a haircut."

"Like you're any better."

The silver-haired boy shot a look at the brunette. "My hair's prettier than yours no matter which way I go."

"Oh yeah?" Sora's Keyblade appeared in his hand. Riku's Soul Eater reappeared in his. Sora began to charge up his strength for a super-effective Zantetsuken that could kill but Riku unleashed his own super move, Dark Aura. Black-purple armor appeared all over his body. Long, ominous, sharp spikes protruded from his shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. His hands were outfitted with gauntlets that had clawed fingers and though he wore no helmet two long horns shaped much like bat's wings grew out from the top of his head. From his waist hung a long, white, chain-mail skirt. It started and split from the center of his belt and grew longer on either side as it reached the back, so as to not get in the way of the knee-spikes.

That was just the start of Dark Aura. Riku sliced through the air, tearing open a portal of darkness between the fabrics of reality. He leapt into it, and it closed after him. Sora, glowing orange with the fully-charged power of his Zantetsuken, looked around quickly in a vain attempt to keep on his guard. Riku popped out of a rift behind him and dashed in a straight line, sword cutting through Sora, and he vanished into a new portal. This continued for five more hits until Riku finally stayed out in the same plane of reality as Sora. The one consumed by darkness plunged his sword into the ground, making flares of his dark soul pop out of the earth in random places. Sora was engulfed by one particular blast and stunned afterwards. The power held inside him faded away as Riku walked around him, mocking the boy condescendingly.

"Now then…" he said, "are we in agreement not to fight about who is better?"

Sora struggled, but nodded. Then Dark Aura's effect faded, letting Sora move. He fell to his knees as Riku's body emitted light. The light faded away, showing that his Dark Armor was gone and he was back in his normal clothes and state. The brunette mumbled something about being out of MP, and staggered as he started to walk again.

"Wait." Riku held out a hand to Sora, his palm pointing to the Keyblade master. He cast Curaga on the boy, causing a mass of giant leaves to fall around him with a golden light. Sora was immediately fully-healed.

"Now then…" Riku said. They started to walk again and came across Riku's house after around 10 minutes or so.

"Thanks for coming with me, Sora…" the silver-haired boy said. Sora just punched him in the arm and yawned.

"I'll catch ya' later, Riku. Don't disappear before then, alright?"

Riku smiled. "Alright." Sora walked away, leaving the taller boy to his house. To his surprise, the place was still in perfect condition on the inside, and wasn't much worse on the outside. All his stuff was still there. 'No doubt the work of Sora and Kairi,' he thought. He sat down on a small, but soft, green couch and put his face in his hands while he cried.

Kairi sighed and shuddered now and then in Kaname's embrace. Sometimes her breath itself stuttered. Back towards the town music began playing. Kaname immediately recognized the tune as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. A symphony orchestra was playing the song so softly it almost lit the night with each note.

The vampire stepped back, releasing Kairi and looking off toward the town. She looked at him in confusion, unsure if she was about to get ditched. The boy's eyes glowed in the darkness as he looked back to her with a smile. He bowed to her as if he were asking her to dance with him. Then the music stopped. Something faster, more fiery, began playing. Kairi and Kaname both recognized the tune: _Don Juan Triumphant_, the musical piece supposedly written by the Ghost of the Opera Populaire… the Phantom of the Opera. (Guys, girls, I'm using the scene after the Phantom kills Carlotta's husband(?) and assumes the role of Don Juan, from the newest remake of the Phantom of the Opera. That might help you. :-) )

What was missing from this rendition on Destiny Island were the voices, the singing! That was what made _Don Juan Triumphant_! How his voice conveyed his raw emotion after all that could be said had been said!

Well, coincidentally (or maybe just conveniently) Kaname AND Kairi had seen the scene, if you will, and both knew the lines of their respective gender. The vampire rose up slowly and looked Kairi in her eyes hungrily, like a wolf would at its prey. He WAS Don Juan, and he WOULD be triumphant. Slowly circling Kairi, he began to voice his passion, both his and his character's.

(Here's a you tube link of the scene from the remake of the movie: .com/watch?v=Dp4UqGxOeHk)

"You have come here

In pursuit of your deepest urge;

In pursuit of that wish which 'til now has been silent…

Silent…

I have brought you

That our passions may fuse and merge.

In your mind you've already succumbed to me;

Dropped all defenses, completely succumbed to me.

Now you are here with me,

No second thoughts.

You've decided…

Decided…

Past the point of no return,

No backward glances.

Our games of make believe are at an end.

Past all thought of "if" or "when."

No use resisting.

Abandon thought,

And let the dream descend…"

He was back in front of Kairi at "dream," and had stepped just a little off to her left. After the long-held "descend" he was suddenly behind her, his right hand clasped loosely over her neck and his left hand on her left hip. She virtually melted into him, eyes closed and her body almost limp. She gasped at his touch, and breathed hard as her heart fluttered. He continued, his passion thundering in his voice.

"What raging fire shall flood the soul?

What rich desire unlocks its door?

What sweet seduction lies before us?"

He let go of her, taking her hand along with him. She had to fight her body's want to stumble, and the cold of his hands on her skin brought her back. He'd stretched her arm out parallel to her body and was breathing along the back of her hand as he sang, kissing her middle knuckle quickly. He looked up and sang directly to her, still in character but also as himself.

"Past the point of no return,

The final threshold,

What warm, unspoken secrets

Will we learn?

Beyond the point of no… return…"

She looked away for a moment, assuming her own character: the character played by Christine Daae. The sadness, the confusion, filled her heart and enhanced the power of her own song.

"You have brought me

To that moment when words run dry

To that moment when speech disappears

Into silence…

Silence…

I have come here

Hardly knowing the reason why

In my mind I've already imagined

Our bodies entwining,

Defenseless and silent."

She turned back and looked directly at Kaname, at Don Juan, her voice raw with power and emotion.

"Now I am here with you

No second thoughts

I've decided…

Decided…

Past the point of no return…"

The two began walking slowly towards the edge of the cliff, facing each other always. Kairi, Christine, continued her part.

"No going back now

Our passion play

Has now at last begun"

They began walking towards each other, bodies silhouetted by the moon's light.

"Past all thought of right or wrong

One final question:

How long should we two wait

Before we're one?"

Suddenly the orchestra in the distance began playing more fervently, more fiery than before, as if they were being empowered by the two lovers from afar. Christine/Kairi still sang.

"When will the blood begin to race?

The sleeping bud burst into bloom

When will the flames, at last,

Consume us?"

Both sang now, mere feet from each other and only drawing closer.

"Past the point of no return,

The final threshold!

Kaname grasped Kairi's hands and brought them over her head, making her spin around and melt backwards into him again as their singing continued through, slowly descending from fiery to calm as they progressed from "watch it burn!" on into the final line.

"The bridge is crossed,

So stand and watch it burn!

We've passed the point of no return…"

Kairi's heart almost didn't beat. The music stayed on that final note and slowly faded into the night. Kaname, however, didn't let her go. Not that she would've let him do such a thing anyway. The brunette girl turned her head to the right and kissed his lips slowly.

"I love you, Kaname." Then she turned her head a little more and bit deeply into his neck, drawing his blood into her begging mouth. He moaned and sighed in delight.

Suddenly, she stopped and licked his neck. "Kaname, I, um…" she was awkward as she spoke. The vampire could tell what she wanted to say. He laughed, hugged her a little more tightly, and patted her on the back gently.

"Go," he said quietly, letting go of her. She looked up at him uncertainly but was assured by his gentle smile. She turned, stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, and began walking away. The vampire smiled after her.

"My sweet Kairi…" he murmured.

Riku sat inside his house, reading a book in silent solitude, when he heard three quick knocks on the door. Even in the silence of near-inexistence, these knocks were almost little more than taps.

"Come in, Kairi."

She did so with a confused look. "How'd you know it was me?" she asked as she closed the door softly.

He smiled. "You always knock like that," he replied. He shut his eyes, then the book, and looked up at her. "Now… what do you want?"

"Well…" She shifted her weight to her left leg. "I wanted to talk to you… about why you left."

He put the book down on the floor at his feet and began using it as an ineffective footstool. "Make yourself at home, please."

She sat down on the three-cushion couch on the cushion farthest from him. "Why did you leave, Riku?"

He smiled. "I wasn't mean for this island. Too quiet, too boring."

"But you came back…"

He laughed quietly. "Nostalgia, I guess."

She shook her head. "Right…"

He covered the top half of his face with his right hand, keeping his smile visible. His Dark Aura armor appeared on his body and he lowered his hand, staring at her. "Do you see my new armor? A result of what I've been doing.

"Kairi, I left because I needed to discover myself. My darkness was out of control, always roiling like hatred, inside me. I needed to find someone who could teach me to control it. Alone, I was powerless to stop my rage. This armor continued to evolve until I couldn't control it, until I couldn't repress it and stay in my normal body. I was… in a word, a demon. Now my armor isn't that different from what you remember."

"So you left… why?"

He sighed exasperatedly. "Because my darkness posed a threat to those I hold dear, I left to find a way to repress it. I also wanted to take time and discover what I really am… if I actually could still be me after everything I'd already done to my friends… and then there's you…"

"What about me?" she asked, curiously staring at him.

"I needed to get away from you, from the one thing I wanted most and could never have… You, maybe fortunately, didn't want me and couldn't understand my suffering."

She turned her gaze away and thought. "But none of that changes the fact that you should've told someone… at least Sora. He might've been the most concerned out of all of us."

He, too, looked away. "Sora… worried about me? I don't think so. We weren't on best terms, remember? I supposedly "stole his girlfriend from him" even though she was still with him." He half-glared at her. "Remember?"

She nodded guiltily. "Yeah… Sorry…"

"It's fine…" he replied with a quick laugh. "I don't think Sora cares anymore… not since you're with that vampire."

"How did you know?"

He smiled. "I can see the preternatural darkness in his blood. I've only seen that in one other place, and that was pretty much the national headquarters of vampires." Riku laughed quickly, quietly. "He's good for you. A little darkness to brighten up your eternal night."

"You don't like this, do you?"

He shook his head. "No… but if he makes you happy, then I have no right to interfere."

There was a silence afterwards. Riku didn't have anything to say, Kairi couldn't think of anything for a while. This whole thing just stunned her mind… she loved Riku, but she loved Kaname, too. She'd known Riku longer, but she was with Kaname. Riku ran off without telling anyone a damn thing, while Kaname had been there for her in one of her darker times and she'd never worried about him suddenly vanishing.

"Why didn't you tell anyone why you left?"

A smile flickered on his face as he spoke. "Well, the first time I left a trail, you and Sora voluntarily got caught up in the mix. I didn't want to hurt you two, so I left; it'd be contradictory to let you follow me and get hurt again."

She nodded appearing to actually be thinking about his response. After some time, she got up from the couch and walked to the door. She slipped her shoes on and, while still facing the door, laid her hand on the door knob.

"Thanks, Riku. Bye." Then she walked out the door. He tilted his head back with a sigh and closed his eyes.

"Oh, Kairi… we could never be together. I wish I could make you understand and stop caring about me." His Dark Aura armor began surging with his evil energy and his body trembled. "There must be a full moon tonight…" he murmured, looking at his hand. The air around it shivered with darkness, like his hand was surrounded by heat waves. He slowly closed his fingers and his Soul Eater appeared. "Everywhere I go, every path I take, there's a reminder… I can't change myself now, and I can't let you get hurt because of my… foolishness…"

He got up and slowly began carving into his door with just the tip of his blade. First he began with a slender shaft shaped like a key and then it melted into a heart as he went up the door. From the left half of the heart burst a wing like an angel's, from the right half there was a wing much like the Soul Eater blade. As he continued to carve, his anger grew. His eyes began glowing a golden color like the setting sun, and his blade suddenly pierced through the door. There was a girl's scream on the other side of the door that suddenly snapped him out of his trance. He opened the door to see Selphie holding her bleeding hand and looking very afraid.

"Riku!" she gasped. He took her by the arm and pulled her inside.

"Sit down, I'll get some bandages," he commanded, almost trying to throw her onto the couch. She obeyed, trying hard to cut off her blood flow just enough to keep from painting his floor. He eventually returned with a white box.

"Full of nothing but bandages!" he scoffed angrily. "No anti-bacterial anything anywhere…" Then he caught an eyeful of her blood, slowly dribbling down her palm. He tried to think of some alternative, but only came up with one plan. "I've got no other choice…" he murmured, taking Selphie's wrist in his hand and holding it out to himself. She shook, uncertain of what he'd do and how she'd feel afterwards. The true brunette had always fantasized about Riku before, and now in his Dark Armor he was hotter than she had ever dreamed.

Riku lowered himself down on one knee, uncurled her fingers to reveal the wound, and licked the cut. Length-wise, it stretched from the bottom of her palm, near where the wrist and hand connected, and trailed up to between her ring finger and middle finger. She shuddered as he completely licked away all the blood on her hand. He looked up at her slowly, eye to eye, and rose up from his knee. When they were eye-level, she gulped and placed her hands on his cheeks, drawing his lips closer to hers. Slowly, she closed her eyes and kissed him, trying to draw out his soul through that one romantic action. He granted her wish, pulling her up off the couch and into his arms. The kiss deepened for a moment before Selphie noticed her bottom lip was being stabbed uncomfortably in two places. She pulled back and tried to steal a glance at his mouth:

From behind his upper lip were two long, sharp fangs. He looked away a moment, eyes glowing before she licked his lips and fangs. He looked back at her and she rested her head on his shoulder, completely baring the right side of her neck to him. Selphie's whole body exploded in heat and shudders as Riku slowly sank his teeth in her flesh, sucking hungrily. The girl began fiddling with the waistband of her skirt and finally managed to get it off before working on Riku's clothes. His Dark Armor wouldn't come off, and in frustration Riku made her step away as he reverted to his normal form - albeit entirely nude. He pushed her gently onto the couch and returned his fangs to her neck as he undressed her. She ran her hands over his back, through his hair, gripping whatever she could when his own hands touched delicate key points. When she was completely undressed, Riku took a step away so he could get a good look of her nude entirety.

'Wow… she's so…' he thought.

"Riku… you're so beautiful…" she murmured, taking his line and virtually devouring him with her eyes. She spread her legs and held out her open arms. "Come to me, my seducer…"

"Ah, my seductress…" he whispered, slowly returning to her. He kissed her passionately, simultaneously drawing her knees up to clamp onto his sides as his manhood entered her for the first time. Riku was her first, and with any luck, her only.

She moaned against his soft, lively lips as he began his second plunge. Selphie began violently shuddering and wouldn't let him draw out his member. He did, however, break their lips' connection.

"Selphie… what's wrong?" he gasped.

"Ah… Adjust… ing…" she gasped, groaned, and squeaked. He laughed quietly for a second, stopping because she bit his shoulder and was now drinking his blood. He drew a sharp breath and clawed her back. She stopped quivering around him and his member. She sighed, gave one final slurp noise on his shoulder, and gave him a quick peck on his lips. "Fuck me, Riku…"

He caressed her head and leaned in again, clamping down on her neck and drinking voraciously from her. Then he began to thrust again until she somehow, literally magically, managed to switch their positions so that he was laying long-wise on the couch and she was sitting in his lap.

"Oh, Riku!" she cried out, clamping down on his member. He gasped out loudly and let his restraint come undone inside her.

"Riku, did you…" she started, only to be silenced by his finger across her lips.

"Calm down, Selphie…" he whispered. "Unless you're a vampire too, I can't knock you up."

She shook for a second. "I'm cold."

Riku picked up the brunette and carried her into his room. "The bed, then… it's late, anyway." The silver-haired boy set her down on her feet and pulled back the thick, soft, furry, white sheets. She quickly fell in the bed and curled into the fetal position. Riku slipped in behind her and pulled the sheets up to her neck, leaving him exposed from the middle of his upper arms on upward.

"Good night, Riku."

"Love you."

She reached back and pulled his arm over her, then clasped her hand around his. "Love you too."


	5. Valentine's Day

Vampire Hearts: Birth By Bite 5

(Fair warning, readers: I'm think I'm bullshitting EVERYTHING that has to do with the Heartless and most of Kingdom Hearts in this story AND ESPECIALLY THIS chapter… I haven't played in a long time, and I don't own any of the games. Sorry.)

~*~*~*~*~*~Sora's Morning~*~*~*~*~*~

Sora sat in his own living room, mind in a state of distress. He hadn't drunk alcohol since he and Kairi broke up - god, how long ago was that? He still stuck to his resolve, to his abstinence from liquor. But he had no method to relieve the pain of being alone. He'd asked some girls, but they all still took him for the drunkard he used to be. And then there was Kairi and Selphie… taken or overly judgmental.

At his feet lay the Keyblade, Ultima Weapon form. It had broken into seven pieces, each break representing the six girls who had refused him and broken his heart.

And, to top it all off, tomorrow was St. Valentine's day.

He closed his eyes and forced the Ultima Weapon to dematerialize. A deep sigh, then he forced his weapon to reappear. It was still broken.

"Fuck…" he mumbled, then made the weapon disappear again. There was a knock at the door.

"Mail!" called out what sounded like a girl his age. Sora slowly rose from his furniture and approached the door. When he opened it he saw that it was, indeed, a girl his age. She was dressed in a red miniskirt with a red button-up shirt without sleeves. Her long brown hair had grown down just below her knees and was pulled back into a braided ponytail. To Sora, it seemed like her amber eyes were glowing. She was crouching, picking up a bunch of mail she'd apparently dropped.

"Sorry, I'll have all this up in a second," she said quickly.

"No, no, let me help…" he replied, stooping down and picking up mail. When it was all said and done, he'd picked up three-fourths of the mail. "Here," he said, handing it to the girl.

"Thanks." She took it and put it inside a denim bag that hung at her side. Then she looked up at him and blushed. "Wow. You're cute."

"…Thanks…" he replied cautiously as he took in an eyeful of her. "You're pretty easy on the eyes, yourself."

She blushed and looked down shyly. "Thanks…"

Then there was a silence.

"What's your name?"

She looked back up at him. "Valentine Isadora."

Sora held out his hand. "My name's Sora." He grinned. "Sorry I don't have a last name."

She clasped his hand with hers, and their fingers unintentionally locked. "What, don't you have a family?"

The grin faded. He cast his eyes in another direction. "No…"

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"No, it… it's fine."

There was a depressing quietude. A wind blew, pushing Valentine's hair around a little. Sora began thinking. 'Hey… she hasn't let go of my hand, and… she doesn't seem like she wants to… and I'm not complaining…'

"If you don't mind me asking, do you have plans for tomorrow, Valentine?" he asked slowly.

The girl looked up sharply, eyes wild. "Huh? What's tomorrow?"

He laughed. "Seriously? It's St. Valentine's Day."

She let go of his hand and looked down. "Oh…" She sounded pretty sad and empty as she spoke. "No… I don't have any plans or a date or anything… why?"

"Well…" Sora cleared his throat and turned his head to the left, watching the tree leaves blow in the wind. "I, myself, don't have any plans for tomorrow…"

Valentine turned 180 degrees and started to slowly walk away. Sora almost thought she was rejecting him. He started to turn until she walked back up to him.

"Tell you what, Sora…" She smirked. "Walk with me. Finish my route with me. Then, I'll decide if I want you."

Sora smiled back. "Sounds good to me. Let me change my clothes. It'll take just a second."

She nodded. "Can I come in while I wait?"

He shrugged. "Sure… Couldn't hurt anything, right?"

Sora let her in and walked off into his room to change. Valentine sat on the couch, twiddling her thumbs as she waited. He came out in his dorky brown shoes and a pair of red swimming shorts, no shirt or anything else.

No, that's a lie. He had a black with white stripes wristband on his left wrist.

"Alright, let's go." He smiled at her. She stood up and smiled back.

"Yes. Let's."

~*~*~*~*~*~Riku's Pre-Noon Prelude~*~*~*~*~*~

The silver-haired boy sat in the shade of a palm tree, tossing a coconut up a foot into the air and letting it fall back into his hand. It'd almost fallen on his head around a half-an-hour ago. He'd managed to catch it by coincidence - he was stretching his arm out and it just fell into his hand.

Riku watched the tide roll in, working out his plans for the day to come… This whole thing was fairly new to him. How long had he been stuck in Cross Academy, secretly enrolled as a student? All that time, hidden from the world and everybody's heart but his own. His worst pains, his biggest fears, they all haunted him for so long.

And there was nobody around who could help him.

That was all in the past. This was now, a time when all that was nothing and untrue. He summoned Road to Dawn and left the sharp side of the blade pointing up. The coconut fell on the blade and was cut clean in half. The two pieces fell in opposite directions; the blood splattered on the ground. He watched it sink into the sand for a moment before he closed his eyes and summoned the Dark Aura armor.

You see, while Riku was at Cross Academy he learned how to commune with the earth via Heartless energy. He was still a novice when it came to this trick, so he couldn't perform it in his normal state. He needed to be in his Dark Aura state.

The boy stood up and pressed his palms together as if he was praying. He bowed his head, letting his hair fall into his face, and closed his eyes to ignore the world and focus his energies. A dark-purple aura surged, outlining his body as if he were performing the move Dark Aura. His hair floated and fell as the aura disappeared. He summoned his sword and thrust it into the ground, blade sinking to the guard. He was surrounded by a larger aura this time, one that was like a giant bonfire. Now his hair whipped around wildly, flying straight up and to the sides spastically. Then he looked up, eyes glowing with the influence of Dark Aura. It wasn't the earthly plane he was seeing; in fact, he didn't see or hear or feel anything. The only part of Riku left here was his unresponsive body. His heart was traveling through the Heartless energy of Destiny Island, reading the way the darkness ebbed and flowed. Finally he came to the very core of all of Destiny Island's energy.

'Island, please, show me your future!' he called. For a moment there was absolute tranquility. Everything ceased to move, to hum, almost as if life itself had stopped. Then the energy began roaring, flaring ferociously.

'Mortal, you are brash and cocky, but you are not cravenly.' The Island's spirit spoke to him with a deep, baritone voice that almost demanded you respect the speaker or you would be stuck down by some kind of all-mighty, overly-powerful god. 'I will reward your courage with my knowledge.'

Riku listened intently and was forced out of the Island's spiritual plane. Back on the earthen plane, his body trembled. His legs grew weak and he fell on one knee. The aura vanished and he reverted to his normal form. Riku's body was in pain, his breathing labored, his vision dim and blurry.

"Oh, god…" he whispered, face scrunching together in pain. "I shouldn't do that for so long a time all at once… Tonight will be hell on me, now…"

~*~*~*~*~*~Kairi's Afternoon~*~*~*~*~*~

The brunette walked along the coastline, feet occasionally touching the water. Her top was a strapless bra-like thing with a light-blue and white-dotted pattern. The bottom of her attire consisted of an equally light-blue bottom with a very thin and transparent veil-like skirt that reached down to exactly in between the middle of her waist and knees. Occasionally the wind tugged at the bottom of her skirt, pulling it this way and that. Kaname would have been with her but he had to go to work earlier than usual. Kairi felt so lonely without her beloved vampire.

There was almost nobody on the beach. None of her friends or anybody. It was probably too cold for most normal people. But Kairi, after her many exchanges of blood with a vampire, was starting to like things normal people wouldn't, like being almost naked in the midst of winter

She looked around and saw Sora walking hand-in-hand with some long brown-haired girl. Kairi sighed in relief.

"That's good. At least he won't be alone tomorrow." She stopped walking and stood, just staring into the sun and missing her vampire. "Kaname…"

She sat down in the sand and watched the waves crash into the beach. She was calm, even though she was alone. After all, Kaname promised her that tomorrow would be the best St. Valentine's Day she'd had so far in her life. She was so eager to see what he'd planned.

~*~*~*~*~*~Kaname's Evening~*~*~*~*~*~

The vampire sat behind the counter of the Items shop, waiting for customers. So far the only people who'd come by was an old man and a young girl who worked for the post office. Bored out of his mind, Kaname was reading a magazine sold by the shop.

"Well, well, it's Kaname…" a boy growled light-heartedly. Kaname looked up and greeted Riku with a light grin.

"If it isn't Destiny Island's OTHER resident vampire," he replied.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the day? Shouldn't you be off with Kairi?"

"Well…" The vampire stood up and put the magazine back. "Today's my pay-day, and I need as much money for tomorrow as I can."

Riku nodded in agreement. "Right. Valentine's Day… heh. You know, this is the first time I've ever celebrated it at all."

"You weren't a favorite at the academy?" Kaname asked. "After all, you stick out like a sore thumb. The girls should've been all over you."

Riku shook his head. "Did you forget? I was a secret student."

Kaname smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Oh, yeah! Sorry, I guess I did forget… not on purpose, though. I promise."

The other vampire waved it off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, forgiven." He scratched the back of his neck and looked off. "So, you sell any Elixirs?"

Kaname looked under the counter. "We have five… they're harder to make than we all thought. You're the only person who goes out and brings us materials to synthesize items."

Riku nodded. "Fair enough…"

"There's a limit of two per customer, but… if you keep this secret, I'll give you a third for free. I hate uneven numbers like that."

Riku nodded again. "Fair enough."

"If you don't mind me asking, what are they for?"

The silver-haired boy looked around in every direction. "If you, too, can keep a secret… I've been reading the Island's darkness and I think tonight is going to be really rough." He put his hands on the counter and leaned in, lowering his voice. "There's going to be a rampage of Heartless tonight, and I want to be prepared because there are only two people here who CAN fight."

"Mind if I come, too?" Kaname asked, setting the Elixirs on the counter. Riku leaned back coolly and fished his wallet from his pocket.

"Alright, there are THREE people who can fight… but will Kairi be okay with it?"

"Yeah." He took Riku's money. The silver-haired boy swiped the Elixirs.

"Alright then. I'll see you later." Riku waved and walked away. Kaname sat down and began leafing through the magazine again. His manager approached from behind, catching him off-guard.

"Your shift is over, Kaname. You can run along, now."

Kaname nodded, bade farewell, and left. He went to his home and changed into a white T-shirt and a pair of blue swimming shorts. Just above the knees was a kind of white tribal-flower print. "Now then… I'll go find Kairi. She's probably all alone without me."

He set out to the beach and began walking along the coastline. Eventually he came across a young girl who was asleep on a towel, dressed in a bikini and a veil-skirt-thing. He smirked and crawled up to her from behind. She sighed and placed her hands on top of his.

"About time you got here…" she murmured.

"Sorry I'm late… I had a little extra work." He grinned and nuzzled her neck.

"It's fine. You're here now. Love me." She let out a great sigh of pleasure at the feel of his body against hers.

~*~*~*~*~*~Selphie's Night~*~*~*~*~*~

Riku and Selphie sat on the couch, wrapped in the fur blanket he'd gone to the closet in his room for. The moon had risen on Destiny Island long ago, thus casting the night's freezing shadow on the tiny inhabitants of the tiny island. It was all dark in the silver-haired vampire's little home but for the neon bluish-white glow the TV cast on anything in front of it-which happened to be the couch and the two existences seated on it. The TV was turned down load and set to some music-video channel.

"Riku… do you love me?" Selphie asked.

He sighed in exasperation. "Yes, yes! It's been three weeks, and you still won't believe me?"

"I just want to hear you sat it," she replied, fingers trailing across his chest.

"You know, I haven't heard you say it to me…" he retorted.

"So? You know I do."

"I want to hear it," he replied, smiling and trying to imitate her voice.

"Fine. Tell me first, then I'll tell you."

"No way. I'm not gonna fall for that."

"Fine, then!" She paused, trying to calm down. "Then how about this: we tell each other at the same time."

"Okay. But I'll do the countdown," Riku replied. Selphie smiled and nodded once. "One… two… three."

"I love you."

Riku smiled mischievously. "Thank you."

Selphie smacked his chest. "You cheated! Now you have to say it!"

"Nah…"

"Please?" she pouted. He kissed her lips.

"Hehe… I love you, too."

She smiled, snuggled him tighter, and sighed.

~*~*~*~*~*~Sora's Hour Before Midnight~*~*~*~*~*~

The brunette sat on top of his perfectly-made-up bed, dressed in his KH2 outfit. He was nervous… a bit scared, yeah. How long had it been since he fought the Heartless with Riku and Donald and Goofy and The King? Far too long. Hell, he was rusty and he could do nothing more than admit it. A conversation he had with Valentine kept running through his head.

'I have to… do something really difficult tonight. Wish me luck?'

'Of course.' She kissed his cheek. 'I believe in you, Sora.'

The brunette stood up straight, tall, firm. He held out his right hand and willed the Ultima Weapon to appear.

It did. And it wasn't broken.

Instead, each link was connected by several metal chains. They somewhat resembled staples, holding pieces of paper together. He looked at the weapon and smirked as he made it disappear.

"Looks like it's go-time…" he murmured, heading out to the cliff where Riku had returned, where there was a tree with a large part of its bark carved out.

~*~*~*~*~*~Riku's Hour Before Midnight~*~*~*~*~*~

Riku tossed and turn on his side of the bed, trying to get some kind of sleep in before he had to fight. Selphie snored away on the other side, completely undisturbed by her lover's restlessness. He gave up and sat up, then turned so his legs hung off the edge.

NOW Selphie rolled over and placed a hand upon his back. "What's wrong, lover?"

He looked over his shoulder, only visible from the bridge of his nose and higher. "I… just can't sleep…"

"I'm sorry, baby… was I not good tonight?" she asked, rubbing his back. He laughed in response.

"No, you were terrific. I'm just… I'm gonna go for a walk. 'K?"

She sat up slowly. "Okay. I'll come with you."

"No!" he replied quickly. She looked at him funnily. "I mean, uh… no. Please don't. I'll be fine, you don't have to come with me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Stay here and please go back to sleep. I'll be back shortly."

She yawned and laid back down. "Okay. I trust you."

He smiled and stood up, then walked over to her side of the bed. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I love you."

She nodded and began snoring after a few seconds. He smiled and left, standing outside in front of his front door in the nude. Of course, nobody else was outside, so it wouldn't matter if he was clothed or not. But nonetheless, he activated his Dark Aura, and, consequently, his battle suit. His eyes glowed golden, the only thing that anyone could see in the darkness of night without some kind of luminous aide.

The vampire slowly made his way to the place where all three agreed to meet. As he expected, he was the first there. So he began a little "exercise" to loosen his body… In other words, he began pretending that sole tree was a Heartless. The earlier look into Destiny Island's energy still made his body ache in some places.

~*~*~*~*~*~Kaname's Hour Before Midnight~*~*~*~*~*~

He woke on the shore, a beach towel wrapped around him and him wrapped around Kairi. She was deeply asleep, and made no sound in her dormancy. He stood up and gathered her in his arms, then slung the towel over his right shoulder. She grumbled something about cake as he began walking away.

He carried her to her house and kicked open the front door. She didn't wake. He softly set her down on the bed. She still didn't wake up. He kissed her forehead and turned, beginning to dress himself.

"And WHERE are you going?" she asked, sitting up and completely awake. He smiled and turned to face her, slipping on a white button-up shirt but not bothering to button it up.

"I'm going to a dinner party, where else?" he joked. She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm… going for a walk?" She crossed her arms. "I, uh…"

She stared at him for a moment, then softened her expression. "Kaname, if you want some time alone for a change, that's fine. I just want to know where you'll be if something happens."

He turned back away, pulling on some pants. "Come on, baby, don't fear the reaper." The vampire joked. She sighed exasperatedly and lowered her head.

"I'm serious!"

Kaname, now with black leather pants and boots on along with the shirt, walked over and knelt by the bed, facing her. He took her hand in his and smiled warmly. "I'll be okay, Kairi. I promise." Then he leant inward, kissed her cheek, and left without another word. She hugged her knees to her chest tightly as she curled into the fetal position under a few blankets.

The vampire arrived at the location about five minutes before midnight. Sora and Riku were both already there, fighting each other to loosen their muscles.

"Well, maybe you two are the Heartless your prophecy spoke of, Riku," Kaname joked, eyes glowing in the darkness. Riku parried Sora's attack by warping about three steps to the side, grabbed the brunette, and flung him at the vampire. Kaname jumped high, evading the boy. Riku, however, suddenly appeared from a rip in existence right before the airborne vampire, slashing wildly with Road to Dawn. Kaname barely managed to dodge before summoning his scythe and blocking an attack head-on with another attack, the two colliding forces knocking Riku a great distance back to the ground and propelling Kaname higher. For a moment the vampire hovered, watching Riku land. Then he began falling quickly, way too quickly to land safely.

Riku looked up and saw a big fireball falling towards the earth a few feet away from him and began cursing in his head. 'No rift is gonna be able to stop that…' he thought. He began to use Dark Aura, but every rip he came from was only barely too far from the falling vampire, who had curled into a tight ball. Riku's warps led him back to the ground and he plunged his sword deeply into the ground in fury. Just as the flames began to emit from the earth's surface around him, a shadow ran by and jumped directly onto one, springing it high. Riku looked up and saw Sora in his Master Form with two Keyblades, a mended Ultima Weapon and Oathkeeper. He directed his flight towards Kaname and performed two Zantetsukens: the first, directly under Kaname's body, created two small cushions of air going in both directions that would help soften the impact and, hopefully, slow his descent. The second, faster and more furious, cut through the vacuum created by the first, making a larger and denser air bubble that greatly slowed Kaname's descent. The vampire landed softly on his feet, Sora landed on the tip of his blade and spun on it like an acrobat before landing on his feet and brandishing the sword at Kaname in one swift move. There was an equilateral triangle formed, with Riku, Sora, and Kaname as the points. The brunette vampire brandished his weapon at the silver-haired vampire, who brandished at Sora.

"Where's this horde of monsters, Riku?" Kaname asked, a slight labor in his breath. Riku pushed the hair back out of his face with his left hand.

"Honestly, I don't know." He looked to Sora. "What time is it?"

Sora raised up his left hand and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Only a few minutes to midnight…"

"Then why are we already fighting like mad?" the scythe-wielder asked. Riku and Sora smiled darkly.

"This is what we've always done before fights like this," replied the silver-haired one. Sora nodded in silent reply. The act seemed almost to summon the drizzle that began coating them in water. Kaname lowered his weapon and looked up into the sky.

"It'll start raining harder soon…" he mumbled. Off in the mainland, a bell tolled 12 strikes loudly, slowly. Immediately, he regained his guard. "I sense something-"

"That's the Heartless swarm I told you about. Get ready!"

Suddenly they were greatly outnumbered. There was no way for either of them to express, in words, by how much the army of monsters exceeded the three. The first wave consisted entirely of Shadows, which were no problem for any of them, but it felt to them like there was no end to the accursed things. After that, there was a much smaller wave of Neo-Shadows. Still no problem. Then Wyverns. Then a few Defenders.

Kaname, Sora, and Riku cut through Heartless like these without any trouble at any time. Unfortunately, things got harder as the rain got heavier - which happened almost immediately. The drizzle became a torrential hurricane. There was a sudden calm in the Heartless attacks.

"What's going on?" Sora wondered aloud, twirling Ultima Weapon on his left index finger by the hilt.

"I agree. It's too…" Kaname set his scythe with the end not equipped with a blade in the ground standing straight up and leaned against it.

"Quiet…" Riku whispered, crouching. "Something must be coming. Something… big…"

"In that case…" Kaname's eyes began glowing red, "I'll release my vampiric evil for this thing."

Riku's eyes changed likewise, but his armor also changed from unholy-purple to innocence-white.

Sora had no further power-up to go to. He only stared out at the sea and cast Curaga on all of them. The moment all their transformations and magic had finished, a massive hole opened up beneath them, sucking them in and closing like a mouth.

Kaname woke some time later, unsure of where he was and whether he should be afraid or not. His scythe was gone, but it was no worry to him as he summoned it from the darkness around him. He shouted out Riku's and Sora's names, and only got a reply what felt like an eternity later.

The reply, however, wasn't quite what he was looking for. It was a loud, dark, evil, dangerous-sounding roar, a scream of sheer anguish. Suddenly the blinding darkness around him was cleared and he saw that he wasn't on Destiny Island anymore… and if it was, he'd never have guessed it. It seemed like he was trapped in some kind of odd half-sphere, the walls (if they even were walls) and floor glowing and fluctuating with rainbow-like swirls all around. Then he saw Riku and Sora fighting a large humanoid Heartless with hair like Medusa, one glowing yellow eye, and a giant heart-shaped hole in its chest. It kept smacking them away like a cat with a ball of yarn, and summoned a great number of little Heartless each time it did so. Kaname jumped straight into the battle, wiping out the minions effortlessly. The larger monster hadn't noticed him yet, so he got behind it and jumped up to its head using his vampiric powers. Then he snarled as he buried the scythe blade deep into the flesh and began slowly sliding down to the Heartless's waist, creating what he thought would've been a huge gash, or at least caused a lot of damage.

He reached the waist, tore his scythe out, and fell the considerable height to the ground, rolling head-over-heels in midair only to land on his feet without any loss of balance. He looked up and was caught off-guard when he saw a massive black fist plunging directly towards him. Kaname barely rolled out of the way but still wasn't in the clear. The Heartless sank its hand into the ground and created a pool of darkness around its wrist that summoned a new wave of little Heartless. Riku and Sora moved over and began helping the vampire defeat them. The three retreated a good distance to try and come up with some kind of plan.

"What the hell is that thing?" Kaname asked.

"That's a Darkside. It attacked Destiny Island once before… when I tried to leave…" Riku replied, mind suddenly a million miles away. "It's pretty much the manifestation of someone's darkness…"

"I wonder whose it is," Sora said. Kaname dropped down onto one knee and wiped the blood from a cut he'd gotten on his cheek while in the madness on Destiny Island.

"Then how do we beat this thing? It looks like I didn't even scratch it with my scythe."

"My Zantetsuken isn't effective on it, either."

Riku sneered. "And my Dark Aura doesn't even make it flinch… Its weak spot is its giant yellow eye. But only Kaname and I can jump that high…"

Sora nodded. "You want me to be a decoy."

The silver-haired boy nodded, smirked, and then pushed his hair back out of his face. It just fell to the sides of his head, making him look a little like a One-Winged Angel. "You do have that knack for staying alive…"

Sora just shook his head. "I'll do it…"

Kaname turned to face Riku. "So we'll just wait until that thing's too preoccupied with Sora, and then we'll attack?"

"That's the plan." Riku cracked his neck. "No questions? Then let's go!"

Simultaneously they sprang into action. Sora began hacking away at Darkside's feet, trying to distract it. This tactic worked perfectly; the giant already turned its focus to the boy. A fist came plunging down, but did not sink into the ground. For a moment, Darkside was paralyzed.

"Now!" shouted Riku, who was already running up the overly-huge arm, Road to Dawn's blade gleaming. Kaname chose instead to leap high into the air, but both reached the target at the same time. The brunette vampire performed a graceful pirouette-like move and sunk the scythe's blade into the yellow orb. Riku lunged and thrust his sword deep into Darkside's eye. Sora waited a moment, fearful and hesitant, but threw Oblivion like it were a boomerang. It clashed into both scythe and sword, and both shot through and out the back of Darkside's head. Riku and Kaname leapt behind Darkside and landed faster than their weapons, which each caught with only one hand as it fell back down. Oblivion came back to Sora, who noticed their positions.

"Riku! Trinity Limit Break!" he called. Riku nodded, grinned, and looked over at a puzzled Kaname.

"What's a Trinity Limit Break?"

Riku smiled even larger, fang-tips glistening. "It's like a Limit Break, but three people in a triangular formation fuse their own Limit Break into a Trinity Limit Break."

Kaname just stared at him, even more confused. "So…"

Riku sighed, not amused. The grin faded. "Combine your Limit Break energy with ours. I'll handle it from there."

Kaname nodded. Riku nodded to Sora. The brunette, non-vampire held the Keyblade out in front of him, summoning his strength. A white, circular aura formed around him, his loose hair and clothes blowing around mildly in the resulting winds.

Riku thrust his sword shallowly into the ground and clasped his hands together in front of his face, eyes closed, chanting to summon his strength. Around him formed an aura like Sora's, only purple. Riku's skirt-like tasset and silver hair whipped around ferociously in the breezes the surging energy created. Underneath his eyelids, both eyes completely glowed red.

Kaname whipped the scythe around, holding it at an angle behind him with his left hand and holding his right hand at eye-level, as if he were holding a fist-sized orb and with the palm turned toward himself. Another circle of aura around him, but this one acted like fire and was colored to match. Suddenly the rainbow world around them changed to a flowing, changing-liquid tie-dye pattern of white, red, and purple. Each fighter created a glowing triangular point that created a giant triangle on the ground, and in the middle of these connected triangles was Darkside, completely paralyzed. There'd be no way for it to escape.

As each member poured more energy into the attack, their respective corner glowed more. It wasn't too long before the Limit had been reached. Each boy rose into the air as they initiated their Limit Breaks. Kaname's move, Trine, were three flaming triangles coming together with Darkside at the center. They crushed him and created an explosion three times the size of the Heartless.

"Is that all you got, Kaname?" Riku mocked. "Lemme show you how it's done!" He held his hands out in front of him and began moving them around. Several tears in the fabric of reality appeared above Darkside, and from them rained several Road to Dawns that stabbed and stuck in the flesh. Darkside roared in pain, but Riku's Limit Break wasn't over. His hands rose above his head as he summoned an enormous Dark Aura from underneath that completely engulfed the Heartless. The flames combined with the explosion from Kaname's Trine that had almost completely faded..

Sora held his arms apart, body symmetrical. Two orbs of energy the size of coconuts glowed in his down-turned palms. For a moment they grew slightly larger, apparently charging power. Then the brunette brought his hands together, combining the two energy orbs. Down below, a bright light was cast upwards from the triangle, immediately blinding and critically damaging Darkside. But Sora wasn't done yet - he rose his left hand above his head, his right hand as far down as his arm would allow. This act stretched the ball of energy between his palms, and created apocalyptic lightning for Darkside to suffer. The brunette began flailing his arms about purposefully, actually altering the fabric of time and space around and on Darkside. He finished this routine by clasping his hands together completely and making the little ball disappear. For five seconds exactly, there was a neutral, quiet peace. Then Darkside exploded, flesh flying off in every conceivable direction like grenade shrapnel. The three returned to the ground, the Trinity Limit fading away. When their feet were on the ground everything flashed white, and they were back on Destiny Island where the Heartless swarm appeared.

"Well, that was fun…" Riku said, panting. "I'm a little tired…"

Sora stretched out his body. "C'mon, Riku. Looks like you're getting soft!" He made his Keyblades disappear. Riku returned to his normal, un-armored form and laughed along with him. Kaname's scythe vanished in a puff of black flame as he, too, began laughing, but… his laughter quickly turned into a choked, gargling noise. Riku and Sora turned sharply and both were horrified at the sight:

Kaname, eyes bulging and mouth gaping, had been impaled through both the heart and the throat by a Samurai they'd somehow missed. The Nobody pulled its blades out of the vampire, who fell limply to the ground. Riku, the only one who still had a weapon out, leapt over and sliced the Samurai in half. The two pieces evaporated into darkness as Riku rolled the brunette vampire over, checking for a pulse, for breath, any sign of life. Kaname's heart had stopped long ago; his eyes were white and lifeless.

Riku shook his head, body trembling. "Sora… Sora, what are we gonna do?"

The brunette pulled his flip phone out of his pocket and dialed the emergency number. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like to report a death… No, not a murder… No, not a suicide. My name is Sora. I'm at the north end of the island. There's a tree and a cliff overlooking a strip of the beach. Yeah, it's only me and my two friends… Thank you." He hung up and closed the phone. "They'll be here in five minutes, Riku…"

The silver-haired boy nodded. Road to Dawn vanished in a beam of light. "How can we break it to Kairi?"

Sora shook his head. "I don't know…"

"Well, uh… I guess you'll be able to go out with her, huh?"

"No, I'm with someone. Valentine Isadora… she's new to the island. And you're with Selphie…"

Riku scratched his head. "Damn… it'll be one shitty St. Valentine's Day for her…"

Sora walked over and put his hand on Riku's shoulder. "Yeah. For all of us."

The sound of sirens quickly pierced the silence, red and blue flashing around and ruining the darkness of night. After some questions, the medics took Kaname's body and placed it in an ambulance, then left. Riku and Sora sat down, staring out at the ocean or the moon, or the reflection it cast on the water.

"How did we miss that Nobody?" Riku asked, voice quiet but raspy.

"I don't know… I wonder why Kaname didn't stop it? How could he not feel its presence? How couldn't we?"

The silence came back, louder and more painful than before. Riku couldn't stand to go home - if he went back like this, and if Selphie asked what was wrong, he'd start crying. If Sora went home, he'd just be alone. And he, too, would cry. He might even cut.

Soon, however, all three women came by. First was Valentine, who was walking by out of sheer coincidence.

"Sora? What are you doing out here?"

He continued to stare out. "Valentine… sit down, and I'll tell you the basics…" He did so, citing the massive fight and then Kaname's death at the end, but omitting the Darkside battle. Valentine cuddled up to him, her head on his left shoulder.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered, right hand trailing up and down his forearm.

Next was Selphie. She snuck up and hugged Riku around his neck from behind, hoping to freak him out. She was disappointed when he didn't react at all.

"Riku, you ok?"

"Selphie…" he mumbled. She sat down on his right and was almost knocked over when he turned his face into her shoulder.

"What happened?" she asked Sora, rubbing the vampire's back and holding him. Sora explained again, voice breaking this time when he spoke of Kaname.

Finally, Kairi came by. She already knew something was wrong. "Where's Kaname?" she asked the group aloud. "Why's everyone so quiet… or crying?"

Sora stood up and walked over to Kairi, then whispered something into her ear. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped. "No…" she mumbled. Sora nodded. "No…" Another nod. "No! NO! NO!" She dropped to her knees, weeping bitterly. "Not Kaname… Not MY Kaname, my beloved Kaname…"

Sora stepped back as she jumped up suddenly. "Then I'll do away with MY life to be with him!" She began running full-speed towards the edge, wanting to jump off and crash with an impact that destroyed her, or to smash into something and be little more than a smear on the face of the planet, or to get immediately buried and crushed by sand, some way to die and be with her beloved. There was no way she could be without him. Not in this life. Maybe not ever.

Just as she began the plunge over the side she was jerked back and thrown to the ground by Riku. "You'd really throw your whole life away… just for him?"

She nodded, tears streaming like rivers from her eyes. "Of course! He was all I had!"

Riku shook his head. "No. You have us. You have a life. This was just life's poor way of telling you he wasn't the right one; Life's poor way of showing him he could never love or be loved. You have to move on."

"Then why couldn't I die, too? Why couldn't I die long ago, when Sora - when I left Sora!"

Sora flinched.

"Kairi, get a hold of yourse-"

"I WON'T! Here you are, parading about with all of your love, and here I am with nothing, and you're telling me to move on and not devote myself to the one person I loved! Well, let me tell all of YOU something-"

At around this time, Valentine back-handed Kairi hard enough to throw the redhead-brunette to the ground. "Listen well, girl," she hissed. "Before I came to this island, every boyfriend I had died in a terrible accident or by suicide. I stopped believing in love, and hope, and everything else you're going on about. But Sora… he makes me want to believe. Riku and Selphie show me that I should hope. You and Kaname made me pray for it." She grabbed Kairi by the arm and pulled her up. "Look at all of them. Look. See how they, too, suffer?"

"You can't suffer the same way I will!" she cried, pulling free.

"No, they'll suffer more. You could have him all the time; anytime you wanted him he would be there. It wasn't that way for us: we hung out with him when we could, but we didn't snap our fingers and demand he come hang out with us. We'll miss him more because we saw him less. Don't think you're the only one who's going to suffer… okay?"

Kairi turned away, apparently less extreme and more focused. She drew in a long breath. "You're right…" she said. "Not you, Riku. I can't believe that. But… thank all of you. I'm sorry."

She left. Nobody tried to stop her, they all went their separate ways - or rather, each couple went its separate way hoping the next day wouldn't be too hard.

However, it was exactly as they wished it wouldn't be. That morning, it was announced that Kaname's funeral would be that afternoon, at 12. Kairi didn't emerge from her home until a quarter 'til, and that was to go to the funeral. Riku and Selphie, and Sora and Valentine, went through similar schedules.

Riku noticed something about Kaname's corpse at the funeral. The neck… He pulled Sora aside after the ceremony. "Sora, did something seem… I don't know, a little weird, about Kaname's body?"

"Other than it being dead?" the brunette replied. Riku almost hit him. "Well… the neck…"

"You saw it too?"

"Yeah. He was stabbed through the neck. And there… they didn't cover his neck."

"Why didn't they?"

"There was no wound…"

"Right!"

Sora looked at him cautiously and could see the twinkle in the vampire's eye. "What's this have to do with anything?"

"Sora, I don't think Kaname is dead. He's a pretty good actor, though, I'll admit that." Riku pointed to Sora's jugular. "See, if your neck was cut open, they'd have to wrap a scarf around you. If the same was done to ME, I might bleed everything I have out onto the floor and I might appear dead, but the wound recovers and I regain my vitality… But calling the rate it would heal at as "gradual" would be a grave understatement."

"Ugh, always with the jokes… But he was also stabbed through the heart. What do you have to say about that?"

Riku held up a finger. "Gimme a second." He walked calmly over to the coffin and hugged Kairi. "I'm gonna have to do something very quickly, Kairi. I hope you don't mind."

"I guess not…"

He walked over to the other side of the coffin and pulled back the blazer and shirt the funeral home had dressed the body, revealing a bare chest.

A bare chest, without the wound.

"Guess they're getting good with those cosmetics, huh?" Kairi asked. Riku smiled.

"Yeah… I guess they are." He could feel Kaname's heartbeat - a pitiful, one-beat-every-two-minutes-or-so kind of beat, but a beat nonetheless. He walked back to Sora.

"Oh yeah, he's alive. But don't tell anyone, okay? Tell Valentine, but nobody else. Make her sweat to never tell. This might be Kaname's idea of a Valentine…"

Sora nodded. "I won't tell Valentine until tomorrow morning. Still, this is a pretty messed-up gift, if that's what he's doing…"

Riku laughed gently. "Well, see ya' later." He walked off, took Selphie by the hand, and they walked away together. She questioned his sudden good mood, but he only winked and said he'd explain later. Sora took Valentine and they left, Sora giving her the same reply when she asked the same of him.

After they buried the coffin some time around 2, Kairi knelt beside his grave and set a bouquet of red and white roses in front of her knees, parallel to the grave. For a while she only stared silently at the name engraved on the stone, a breeze rushing through her hair occasionally.

"Kaname…" she whispered. "I love you… unfortunately, like this, I'll never know if we could work out… I'll never know if you stopped loving me, and I may never be able to forget you… I may never be able to forget how much I believed we could have been together forever, how much I wish we could have been together…" She sighed heavily and wiped the small trail of tears that had run from her eyes during her soliloquy. She ended up accidentally smearing some of her eyeliner in the process. She thought she could feel the ground below getting a tiny bit… warmer… and maybe kind of like there was a heartbeat below.

"I drank your blood… I loved you… I just wish it hadn't ended like this…" She stood up, gave one long gaze at the tombstone, and started to walk away. She was fifteen steps away when she heard a noise come from the grave, first like a kind of hiss-whisper-growl, then like something clawing through dirt. She turned, staring at the place and watching the dirt move… it rose and sank as though something were about to burst out.

"What the…" she muttered. A hand came up out of the ground, a hand bloodied with the effort of clawing through a wooden coffin. She felt her eyes beginning to glow a dark red color and her heart was filled with a sudden comforting warmth…

"Is it… Are you…?" she murmured, voice crackling. Another hand came through, and they pushed on the ground to push out a pair of shoulders and the back of a torso dressed in a white shirt stained with blood and dirt. Then came a head, a face, brown hair and purplish-red eyes and a mad oral grasp for air.

"FUCK!" he gasped, breathing heavily. "It's been YEARS since I was buried alive! I don't remember it being this painful!" he continued as he pulled himself out of the grave. His fangs were longer, his nails like claws, and giant bat-like wings were coming out of his shoulder-blades. A continual black and white aura burned around him, as if he were trying to fight off the influences of both Haven and Hell. When he managed to actually pull himself entirely out of the dirt, he brushed himself off and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now then…" Kaname began looking around, the aura pretty much completely gone. "What shall I-" He started, interrupted only by himself and only when he saw Kairi.

"You…" she stuttered, eyes wide and mouth gaping. Kairi stepped shakily towards him, eyes streaming again. "Kaname?"

He grinned, fangs flashing. Suddenly he was directly in front of her, staring slightly down to her. "Ah, Kairi… you're even more beautiful in your funeral dress… I wish you'd dress up like this more often, just for me…"

She looked up for a moment, hesitant to make any move. Then she tackled him in a hug-kiss combination, knocking him to the ground. The redhead-brunette slowly tore open his shirt, running her hands over his smooth, cold, milky flesh and feeling his warm heartbeat, affirming he was alive, making sure he was actually there, actually existing beneath her.

"Well!" he whispered, staring into her eyes. "That certainly is new… But ah, dear Kairi, it's been too long without a drop of your sweet crimson." He began leaning up to bite into her neck She gasped warmly, comforted by the very real pain.

"Kaname… let's go back to my place…" she whispered. He picked her up and carried her to her house, where they made love like there was no yesterday. As the evening sun gave way to night's blissful moon, Kaname and Kairi sat side-by-side on the couch, watching the sappy romance movie on the TV.

"So, uh… about that St. Valentine's Day you planned out and didn't get to show me because you kinda died? When can I cash in on that?" Kairi asked, resting her cheek on his shoulder.

Kaname grinned. "Any day you'd like."

Meanwhile, Riku and Selphie lay in bed together. "Riku, today was… amazing…"

The silver-haired vampire smiled. "I tried pretty hard… so I'm glad to hear that."

She kissed his neck. "Can I have a taste of your blood?"

"Hahahaha, no."

Valentine and Sora stood on the girl's doorstep, talking idly.

"Thanks for tonight, Sora. I had… a lot of fun today."

"Well… you're welcome." He smiled. For a moment they just stared at each other, smiling awkwardly. "Well, uh… Guess I'd better get going. Got some stuff I need to do at home, so…" He turned and began walking away, but she reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Wait, Sora. Are you sure you don't want to come inside?" she asked, grabbing his hand in both of hers.

"I thought you'd never ask." He replied, smiling.

Her little home seemed almost little more than a hut shaped like an igloo. Basically, the living room, bedroom, and kitchen were on the different cardinal points. At North was a refrigerator and a stove-top oven, at East was a bed and closet, at West a TV and two chairs sat. At South was a door that led to a bathroom with a shower and sink. They entered by a door at Northwest.

"Simple shack ya' got here…" Sora commented. She laughed.

"It's weirdly comfortable for me…" she replied after lightly swatting his face with the back of her hand.

"By the way, you looked pretty sexy tonight." He said, a coy smile contorting his lips.

It was true, she was very sexually appealing to him that night. She'd loosely curled her bangs and combed them to the sides, hair on the top and back of her head pulled into a loose, low ponytail. She wore a silk kimono, red outside and pink inside. On the outside was a white-print rose-pattern. A large ribbon that covered her entire abdomen served as a belt. On her feet she wore sandals and long, white, silk stockings.

Sora, on the other hand, was in his normal KH2 attire.

"Sora, you can sit down anywhere you'd like," Valentine said, walking over to the closet and digging around. She took out a long, thin, light-blue nightgown and began changing her clothes right in front of Sora. The boy wasn't very bothered by women getting almost naked right in front of him at his age but also because of… other things.

"You don't mind spending the night with me, do you?" she asked.

"Well, I'll have to go home and get some things…"

"Oh, nonsense." She took him by the hand and drug him gently to the bed, then pushed him down onto it and began stripping him down to his boxer shorts. She connected her lips to his just after taking off his shirt and continued to work on his other clothing. By the time it was all over and said, she was sitting in his lap, wearing only a bra and panties, and he in a pair of black boxers.

"Sora, you're so hard…" she whispered in his ear, grinding against him and then biting his ear. He started to unclip her bra, hand slithering shakily up her back, when she brought her hand up and stopped him.

"Don't…" she whispered. "Sorry I've got you all riled up…"

"It's fine…" he replied softly and kissed her forehead. She kissed his lips quickly and moved from his lap to the bed. She dug into the covers and curled up, laying on her right side. Sora followed suit, curling around behind her and wrapping his left arm around her waist. "Good night. I love you."

"I… I love you, too."

Vampire Hearts: Birth By Bite - END


End file.
